Temporary Carbon Units from Carbon Farming and EU Agri-food Climate Policy

This report explores approaches for promoting carbon farming which includes practices that result in the temporary storage of carbon in natural ecosystems or the reduction of soil emissions. While such measures are key to mitigating climate change and deliver important other environmental benefits including biodiversity, their mitigation impact can be reversed, resulting in only temporary mitigation. The study discusses how potential future EU policy instruments - such as the proposed Agricultural Emissions Trading System (AgETS), Mandatory Climate Standards (MCS), and public procurement programmes - can promote carbon farming while maintaining high environmental standards. The study highlights both the opportunities and the pitfalls of linking these policies to the Carbon Removals and Carbon Farming Regulation (CRCF) by integrating temporary carbon farming units certified under this framework – and investigates alternative approaches to promote carbon farming. The current draft CRCF certification methodologies include severe weaknesses which risks generating low-quality temporary carbon farming units. Using such units for offsetting purposes may ultimately undermine mitigation claims and pose a threat to environmental integrity.