On Friday 10 July, the European Commission published a delegated regulation establishing the methodology for certifying carbon farming activities. These are agricultural and forestry practices aimed at capturing CO2 present in the atmosphere in order to store it in soils.
The Commission states that, in order to achieve climate neutrality by 2050, the main means is to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Carbon removals are presented as a means of “addressing residual emissions”.
A first voluntary legislative framework, relating to permanent carbon removals, carbon farming and carbon storage in products, was adopted on 27 November 2024 (2024/3012). This delegated regulation is therefore intended to supplement it by setting out the methods for complying with EU quality criteria and monitoring and verification procedures.
The methods selected for certification are carbon farming activities in agriculture and agroforestry carried out on mineral soils, rewetting, restoration of peatlands and other organic soils, and afforestation, including the planting of a single species in certain areas.
Sensitive issues remain partly unresolved. The issue of Indirect Land Use Change, a sensitive subject because of fears that agricultural production could be halted in favour of carbon farming activities or that land prices could rise and give rise to speculation, is addressed.
That said, the Commission admits that “it is currently not possible to quantify emissions linked to indirect land use change or the risks of land speculation” because of the lack of reliable data at EU level.
The delegated regulation also addresses the issue of reversal of carbon storage in natural ecosystems. The Commission asks for these risks to be assessed and mitigated, but has nevertheless decided that, in cases where this should still occur, this should not affect “the validity of certified units”.
“However, for these activities, appropriate resilience practices should be put in place in areas exposed to risks likely to negatively affect the net climate benefit”, adds the Commission. Operators will also have to choose a liability mechanism and, where appropriate, justify whether the reversal was avoidable or not.
The texts: https://aeur.eu/f/muju ; https://aeur.eu/f/mui
A practice open to debate. Environmental and climate protection organisations and researchers, for their part, believe that carbon storage entails significant risks.
These include the climate inefficiency of certain methods, such as bioenergy with carbon capture and storage (BECCS), the inability of soils to store more carbon, in a context where seven of the nine planetary boundaries have already been breached, and the risks of deforestation caused by growing biomass demand.
Sofia Ghezzi, climate policy officer for WWF EU, says that it is also essential for carbon capture to remain separate from the obligation to reduce emissions and from the ETS.
However, the Commission is nevertheless reportedly considering integrating it into its 17 July revision (see EUROPE 13905/19). (Original version in French by Nadège Delépine)