The Council of the EU and the European Parliament have reached an agreement on certifying carbon removals, including through carbon farming.
The provisional agreement between the two institutions will establish the first certification framework for carbon removals in the EU.
The council said that the agreement “maintains an open definition of carbon removals”, which includes carbon farming.
Carbon farming activities recognised in the agreed regulation include temporary carbon storage (for example by restoring forests and soil and wetland management), and soil emission reductions, which include carbon and nitrous oxide reductions from soil management, and wetland management.
However, these carbon farming activities must be ongoing for at least five years before they are certified under the regulation, and must not lead to land being acquired for “speculative purposes” negatively affecting rural communities.
Activities that do not directly result in carbon removals or soil emissions reductions, such as avoided deforestation or renewable energy projects, are not covered by the regulation.
The two institutions agreed that a carbon farming activity must always generate at least a biodiversity “co-benefit”.
The unit that will be used for carbon removals under the regulation will equate to 1t of “certified net benefit”.
The regulation will distinguish between the activity period (when the carbon removal action is being carried out) and the monitoring period (when its results are monitored). Operators, including farmers, will be liable to address any cases of reversal, where carbon dioxide is released back into the atmosphere during the monitoring period.
The text agreed by the two institutions calls on the European Commission to establish a common EU-wide registry to make information on the certification and units publicly available and accessible, including certificates of compliance and summaries of certification audits.
The provisional agreement will now have to be approved by the full council and parliament before it is finally adopted.
The agreement between the council and the parliament comes after the latter adopted its position on the carbon removal framework in November.