The European Commission has adopted its first set of technical certification methodologies for carbon farming under the EU’s Carbon Removals and Carbon Farming (CRCF) Regulation, providing the detailed rules that farmers, foresters, and land managers need to access financial rewards for climate-beneficial land management practices.
The delegated act, adopted last week, covers three categories of activity: agriculture and agroforestry on mineral soils, the rewetting and restoration of peatlands and other organic soils, and afforestation.
The regulation itself entered into force in December 2024 as the EU’s first dedicated framework for certifying carbon removals, carbon farming, and carbon storage in products.
The new methodologies translate the regulation’s broad quality criteria into the specific technical requirements that operators must satisfy to receive certification.
Once the delegated regulation enters into force, certification schemes will be able to apply for recognition of compliance and begin certifying carbon farming activities across member states.
The rules, developed through a public consultation and technical input from its Expert Group on Carbon Removals, deliver benefits that extend beyond carbon accounting, the Commission said.
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Certified activities under the three categories are designed to improve landscape resilience to climate change, support biodiversity, protect ecosystem services, and strengthen long-term food and biomass security.
By creating a trusted certification framework, the new rules should help land managers secure a new income stream tied to sustainable practicesβaddressing a longstanding concern that voluntary carbon markets lacked the consistency and credibility to attract widespread farmer participation.
The adoption represents a significant step in implementing the CRCF Regulation and, according to the Commission, in strengthening carbon farming’s role in EU climate policy more broadly.
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