The council of EU agriculture ministers has adopted conclusions on carbon farming based on the European Commission’s ‘sustainable carbon cycles’ communication.
Part of the commission’s communication deals with agriculture and forestry, aiming to encourage agricultural practices that “help to capture carbon from the atmosphere and store it in soil or biomass in a sustainable way”.
These practices may include planting hedges or trees; growing legumes; using catch crops and cover crops; practicing conservation agriculture and maintaining peatlands; and, on the forestry side, afforestation and reforestation.
The conclusions specify what the council expects from the upcoming certification framework for carbon removals, for which a legislative proposal will follow at the end of the year.
The ministers sought to ensure that economic value is attached to practices that increase carbon removal and storage, based on scientifically proven measurement requirements.
In its conclusions, the council says that the ministers welcomed the communication from the commission and acknowledged the “key role that farming and forestry could play in the fight against climate change by absorbing carbon from the atmosphere”.
Ministers also “recognised the importance of providing financial support that offers sufficient incentive to farmers and foresters alongside the Common Agricultural Policy [CAP], from both public and private resources, in order to encourage them to adopt these climate-friendly practices”.
The council expressed support for the commission’s plan to set up an “expert group of farming and forestry representatives”, and said that such a group would be “well placed” to evaluate and take account of existing carbon certification schemes and share examples of best practice from across the EU.
The council also called on the certification framework to be extended to reductions in greenhouse gases (GHGs), particularly methane and nitrous oxide.
The member states also highlighted that the primary purpose of EU agriculture – in accordance with the EU treaties – is to ensure food security, and that this “must not be compromised”.
The council’s conclusions went on to highlight the importance of taking into account “regional specifications” and avoiding any “unnecessary administrative burden” when setting up the certification framework, which the ministers said should be “as simple as possible”.