EU calls for increased carbon sequestration in agricultural soils

The Commission has adopted a Communication on “Sustainable Carbon Cycles”, outlining how to increase carbon removals from the atmosphere. To offset the effect of our CO2 emissions, the EU will have to drastically reduce its dependence on fossil carbon, increase carbon sequestration in agricultural soils to store more carbon in nature, and promote industrial solutions to remove and recycle carbon in a sustainable way and ascertainable. The removal and storage of more carbon from the atmosphere, oceans and coastal wetlands are essential to fulfill the EU’s legally binding commitment to achieve climate neutrality by 2050.

According to the magazine Euroarne, the Communication establishes measures in the short and medium term to support carbon sequestration in agricultural soils and expand this ecological business model in order to better reward land managers for this service and the protection of biodiversity . By 2030, initiatives in this direction should contribute 42 million tonnes of CO2 storage to Europe’s natural carbon sinks. Some of the measures to achieve this objective are, among others:

  • Promote carbon sequestration practices in agricultural soils under the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) and other EU programs, such as LIFE and the Horizon Europe research mission ‘A Soil Pact for Europe’, and through national public financing and private financing.
  • Standardize the monitoring, notification and verification methodologies necessary to facilitate clear and reliable certification regulations on carbon sequestration in agricultural soils that allow the development of voluntary carbon markets.

 

More information at this link.

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