Towards Enhanced On-Farm Soil Carbon Sequestration: A First Assessment of the Potential Role of the Emerging EU Legal Framework

Abstract

Farmers across Europe have embarked on on-farm soil carbon sequestration projects, with the aim to achieve healthy and resilient soils and simultaneously seek new business opportunities, for example, through selling carbon offsets to major greenhouse gas emitters. A regulatory framework for such carbon farming activities is slowly emerging in the European Union, most prominently with the adoption of Regulation 2024/3012 establishing an EU certification framework for permanent carbon removals, carbon farming, and carbon storage in products. However, other new EU laws may incentivize farmers to increase carbon levels in their soils as well, namely, Regulation 2024/1991 on nature restoration and Directive 2025/2360 on Soil Monitoring and Resilience. In this article we assess the extent to which the three new EU laws facilitate on-farm soil carbon sequestration projects through an analysis of the new rules and interviews with representatives of European on-farm carbon credit initiatives in five European countries.