On March 5-7, 2024, I.P.Cert had the honor to present the “Living Cropland” Initiative project at the 1st European Carbon Farming Summit, which was perfectly organized by the Credible project team. Joined by global experts in this sphere, 500+ participants (including 200 online) had two days of the fruitful discussions in Valencia, Spain.
I participated in the breakout sessions on ” Assessing the economic impact of the co-benefits of increasing soil organic matter ” by Andrea Ferrarini, ” Proximal sensing and digitization in carbon farming” by Paulina Rajewicz and “Exploring requirements for the QU.A.L.ITY criteria to deliver on sustainability.” by Aaron Scheid.
The summit was articulated to progress on the three pillars of robust carbon farming:
– Which practices for European soils?
– What standards and certification mechanisms?
– How to monitor carbon fluxes?
Our colleague Maryna Bereznytska participated in the sessions on ” Assessing the economic impact of the co-benefits of increasing soil organic matter ” leaded by Andrea Ferrarini, ” Proximal sensing and digitalization in carbon farming” leaded by Paulina Rajewicz and “Exploring requirements for the QU.A.L.ITY criteria to deliver on sustainability.” leaded by Aaron Scheidt.
“For me, it was very interesting to understand the trends in the development and framework of European policy on Carbon Farming and removals certification. I consider it crucial for Ukraine to monitor and consistently follow in parallel to these trends.”- says Maryna Bereznytska, Chief Climate Change Consultant, PDD Developer at I.P.Cert LLC.
Key highlights and findings from the summit:
🌱 Certification Framework: DG CLIMA presented updates on the Carbon Removal Certification Framework, crucial for Europe’s net-zero roadmap. Carbon removals are especially crucial as it is expected that certain emissions will remain unabated by 2050
🌱 Importance of monitoring: Proper monitoring is essential for the validity of carbon credits. The Carbon Removal Certification Framework includes soil emission reduction units alongside sequestration units, and acknowledges the impermanence of biogenic carbon
🌱 Harmonised approach: Participants stressed the need for a harmonised approach in Europe to foster trust in carbon credits, given the disparate certification methods hindering a robust market
🌱 Catalysing agriculture: Purpose of Carbon farming extends beyond the carbon sequestration; it’s about driving the transition of agriculture towards resilience against climate change and biodiversity loss
🌱 Empowering farmers: Farmers’ knowledge is indispensable, but current EU carbon credit prices fall short, necessitating additional finance sources
🌱 Local context matters: Carbon farming initiatives must consider diverse farming conditions and facilitate peer-to-peer learning among farmers
🌱 The Second Carbon Farming Summit to discuss the First draft of accounting framework for SOM co- benefits: nutrient, water conservation, better soil structure, upground and underground biodiversity. There is a strong need to figure out the soil health ROI.
🌱 It is important to continue integrating Earth Observation data and ground truth plots to develop standardised baselines of carbon projects/programmes in a larger geographical area. Similarly, mapping past events is essential, and there is a need to predict what will happen in the future (especially risk mapping) to manage and protect our landscape
During the Summit it was very important to admit that the approach used for Living Cropland Initiative projects is in line with the draft European framework and elaborated QU.A.L.ITY criteria.
And, of course, we can’t help but mention the insights from the opening speaker, Christian Holzleitner, and the second day’s speaker, Valeria Forlin from the European Commission:
🌱 EU certification framework has an architecture with three types of activities and four types of units. 1) Permanent carbon removal= permanent carbon removal units, 2) Carbon storage in product= carbon storage in product units, 3) Carbon Farming= Carbon Farming sequestration unit + Soil emission reduction unit. carbon storage in product units and Carbon Farming sequestration unit are time limited.
🌱 Regulatory option for the EU land sector: to study on possible options of agri food ETS
Special acknowledgment to Edouard Lanckriet, Agrosolutions (framework for the design of harmonized, context-specific Monitoring, Reporting and Verification system for soil Carbon and greenhouse gas balances by Agricultural activities) and the researchers of the two projects MRV4SOC project and Project Marvic .
