Carbon farming increases the amount of organic carbon stored in soils and biomass, helping to mitigate climate change. Carbon farming practices do not only affect the climate, but can also impact other sustainability outcomes, including biodiversity, soil health, and water use and quality. The promotion of carbon farming poses an opportunity – and a risk – for meeting other sustainability objectives, alongside climate change mitigation.

The EU Certification Framework for Carbon Farming

In 2024, the European Union introduced a certification framework for permanent carbon removals, carbon farming, and carbon storage in products (the CRCF). It supports the upscaling of carbon farming (and other carbon removals) by establishing a voluntary framework for carbon removal activities, including monitoring and verification processes and minimum quality standards. The CRCF includes specific rules related to sustainability, requiring carbon farming activities to avoid negative impacts and encourage positive impacts on sustainability outcomes.

Objectives of the CREDIBLE Focus Group 2.1

This Deliverable presents the work of the CREDIBLE Focus Group 2.1, titled "Minimum requirements to ensure carbon farming delivers sustainability benefits". The objective of the Focus Group and the goal of this document is to make recommendations on how the CRCF can maximize the positive impact of carbon farming on biodiversity, adaptation, water and other sustainability outcomes, at the same time as mitigating climate change. The Focus Group and this document focus on this specific context of carbon farming on mineral soils, though conclusions will also be relevant for other carbon farming activities.

Focus Group 2.1 brought together participants from carbon farming certification schemes, farmer associations, soil scientists, and policy experts. The Focus Group met in six online workshops over a 12-month period across 2023/2024 and hosted an in-person workshop with wider stakeholders at the 2024 European Carbon Farming Summit. 

A comprehensive overview of Focus Group discussions and conclusions

This deliverable expands on the policy brief we published at the end of last year (Ensuring Carbon Farming Delivers Sustainability Benefits), serving as a more detailed and comprehensive version of that document. The deliverable covers the following topics, presenting conclusions as well as key discussion points: 

• Principles for ensuring sustainability through carbon farming that were agreed upon by the Focus Group.
• Research into approaches to ensure sustainability outcomes in existing carbon farming certification schemes.
• Operationalizing sustainability objectives through the CRCF: we introduce the CRCF and its sustainability requirements, then summarize the Focus Group’s recommendations. This section also includes more detailed discussions of practical approaches to sustainability, including farm environment plans and price premiums. 

The report also contains information about the focus group participants, activities, and outputs.