Network on carbon farming and emissions reductions for agricultural and forest lands

Expected Outcome:

Activities under this topic contribute to the implementation of the Mission ‘A Soil Deal for Europe’, in particular specific objective 2 “conserve soil organic carbon stocks”. Activities further support the design and implementation of soil health-improving innovative carbon farming practices in Europe, as intended by the implementation of the EU Carbon Removal and Carbon Farming (CRCF) Regulation^[1] and the European Commission Communication “A Vision for Agriculture and Food”. Activities should also contribute to meeting the Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 13 on Combating climate change and SDG 15 on Life on land. Carbon farming activities should at least generate co-benefits for the objective of protection and restoration of biodiversity and eco-systems, including soil health as well as avoidance of land degradation, thereby contributing to achieving the nature restoration targets set out in Union law.

Project results should contribute to all of the following expected outcomes:

• Consolidated knowledge and descriptions of the state-of-the-art on practices for carbon farming and for the reduction of emissions from agriculture, forestry and livestock, in support of, but not limited to, the implementation of the CRCF, are available for land managers, farmers and forest owners and the Commission’s Expert Group on carbon removals.
• Enhanced uptake by land managers of carbon farming and practices for the reduction of emissions (mentioned in the previous bullet) in Europe, and development of standards to support these practices.
• Increased capacities of land managers for measuring, monitoring and standardising carbon fluxes, in particular at landscape level, through a robust network for data collection and facilitated improvement of (new) data collection.

Scope:

The success of carbon farming in Europe will be judged on the quantity and quality of the sequestration of carbon in plants and soils and the reduction of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from agricultural soils, as well as on the benefits for sustainability objectives (notably biodiversity) of the activities leading to such carbon sequestration or emission reductions, in a context of increasing impacts from climate change. To upscale carbon farming successfully and to establish long-term business perspectives, it is essential to standardise the methodologies and rules for monitoring, reporting and verifying (MRV) the gains or losses in carbon sequestered. Currently, private schemes apply very different benchmarks and rules to the carbon credits placed on the voluntary markets. With a high degree of transparency, environmental integrity, and methodology standardisation, buyers should have more trust in the quality of the offered carbon farming credits, land managers should also be able to more easily estimate their potential revenues, and policy makers should be keener to allow the use of such credits to warrant compliance with the EU climate regulatory framework, including currently existing 2030 targets (Effort-Sharing Regulation, Regulation on land use, land use change and forestry - LULUCF) and the 2050 climate neutrality goal. Therefore, such a regulated framework should contribute to develop a successful market for carbon farming.

The CRCF was adopted by the EU co-legislators in December 2024. Following the legislative process, the scope of carbon farming was extended to cover the certification of emission reductions from the improved use of fertilisers, in addition to carbon removals and the reduction of carbon release. With the CRCF adopted, it is now a priority for the Commission to advance work on preparing (and also updating in the future) the specific high-quality carbon farming certification methodologies, such as from rewetting of drained peatlands or agroforestry, with the continued assistance of the Commission’s Expert Group on carbon removals. As part of the legislative review of the CRCF in 2026, the Commission will also prepare a pilot methodology for the certification of practices that reduce emissions from livestock management.

The Expert Group is assisting the Commission in the preparation of policy initiatives and non-legislative proposals and covers all carbon removal topics (permanent storage, carbon farming and storage in products). To develop its work, the Expert Group needs the continuous support of a network of key stakeholders to collect and aggregate views on best practice for standards for carbon farming and emissions reductions and to synthesise the state-of-the-art on existing related certification methodologies. Currently, the CREDIBLE project (foreseen to end in June 2026) is building and coordinating this network, developing a platform for knowledge sharing, and establishing data collection networks. The network should remain in a key position to provide input for the discussions as well as to contribute to increased capacities for measuring, monitoring and standardising carbon fluxes, in particular at landscape level, through a robust network for data collection. There is also a need to accompany the implementation of the CRCF by enhancing the uptake of its methodologies and by getting feedback from the actors applying them on how to update these methodologies.

Proposed activities should:

• Coordinate the continuation and expansion of the existing network of key stakeholders drawn from European research facilities, systems developers, solution providers, administrations, farm advisors and managers and others, involved in soils programmes linked to carbon sequestration and emission reductions, in particular at the landscape scale.
• Support the work of the Expert Group on carbon removals by providing concrete, operational and solution-oriented recommendations, based on best practice and identifying the actors (European/national/regional authorities, certification bodies, land managers, etc.) which should implement each specific recommendation.
• Continue developing a platform for networking, knowledge sharing, exchange of experiences, mutual learning, best practices and support to facilitate the development (design, implementation and evaluation) of result-based schemes for carbon farming and the reduction of emissions from agricultural soils and livestock.
• Underpin the expansion of data collection networks (such as carbon flux measurements stations, ground sampling campaigns, etc.), continuing to promote the practice of data sharing and standardisation, retrieval and aggregation of information.
• Identify gaps and opportunities at the landscape level in ecosystem monitoring and soil carbon flux mitigation practices, leveraging EU level geographically-explicit monitoring systems and solutions.
• Support and establish pathways to improve national GHG inventories with the data received from projects (e.g. carbon farming).
• Propose and adopt strategies to ensure that the above-mentioned activities are self-sustainable at the end of the project.

Proposals should cover carbon removals and GHG emission reductions (e.g. due to fertilisers) in all relevant LULUCF categories^[2], including at least croplands and grasslands under various farming systems management / approaches (e.g. agroforestry, agroecology, organic farming), and forest land categories, regardless of their accountability in either the Agriculture or LULUCF sectors of the GHG inventories. Activities must contribute to supporting the knowledge base for addressing emissions from livestock through inter alia improved farm management and stocking densities. A systemic approach considering both removals and emission reductions by implementing whole-farm management approaches, including livestock, would be desirable. Proposals should aim to cover emissions reductions in the different nutrient and mass-flow chains (e.g. crop, feed, stable, biogas plant, fertilisers, root and crop residues, biogas, root uptake of nutrients, humus reproduction, etc.) as well as value creation chains (including processes, business options, carbon storage and multifunctional ecologic aspects).

A substantial part of the budget should be dedicated to co-creating with stakeholders the project’s tools and services, enhancing communication, raising awareness and engaging with stakeholders, thereby ensuring co-ownership of the project’s results and outputs and supporting the interest in, knowledge about and uptake of carbon farming.

Special attention should be given to the promotion and integration of existing databases and datasets, the application of digital technologies, and the combination of Earth observation techniques (drones, airborne, satellite based) with in-situ monitoring for (enhancing) the provision of robust, timely and accurate GHG removals/emissions’ estimates.

Proposals must include dedicated tasks and appropriate resources for:

• Building on other relevant EU programmes, projects and initiatives (which will have finished at the start of the project) on carbon farming and soil carbon monitoring: e.g. CREDIBLE; MRV4SOC; EJP Soil- including the project Road4Schemes-; ClieNFarms; HOLISOILS; ORCASA; SEPLA and the work of the JRC within the Administrative Arrangement “Carbon Removal on Land”; relevant LIFE projects; relevant data from the Farm Sustainability Data Network (FSDN) initiative as well as from countries GHG inventories.
• Collaborating on measures and joint activities with other relevant projects and initiatives (or build on them, if they have finished by the start of the project): e.g. MARVIC; ESA World Soils; LILAS4SOILS; HORIZON-MISS-2024-SOIL-01-07: Development of high spatial-resolution monitoring approaches and geographically-explicit registry for carbon farming; HORIZON-CL6-2024-CLIMATE-02-1: New knowledge and innovations for climate-smart farming - connecting research stations; HORIZON-CL6-2025-02-CLIMATE-04: Monitoring, reporting, verification and mitigation of non-CO2 greenhouse gas emissions and related air pollutants from agriculture; Climate Farm Demo; OrganicClimateNET; the Horizon Europe Partnership on Agroecology; relevant LIFE projects.
• Engaging with the relevant Mission Soil cluster activities and ultimately feeding into the Expert Group.

Proposals should demonstrate a route towards open access, longevity, sustainability and interoperability of knowledge and outputs through close collaboration with the European Union Soil Observatory (EUSO) and SoilWise.

[1] Regulation - EU - 2024/3012 - EN - EUR-Lex

[2] Article 2 of 2023 revision of EU Regulation (EU) 2018/841 of the European Parliament and of the Council on the inclusion of greenhouse gas emissions and removals from land use, land use change and forestry (LULUCF) in the 2030 climate and energy framework, see https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/?uri=CELEX:02018R0841-20230511.