LANDMARC Opens Policy Dialogue on Carbon Farming and Carbon Removal

 LANDMARC partner JIN Climate & Sustainability discussed the governance challenges for valorization of the climate and non-climate benefits of carbon farming. The mission of the Dutch Bio-economy Federation (‘Federatie Bio-economie Nederland; FBN’) is to speed up the transition towards a more sustainable bio-based economy and FBN also supports policy innovation structures and business models for carbon farming and carbon removal. During the one-hour session - a follow-up of an expert session hosted on 17-12-2021 (link) – the complexity of the interactions between different carbon farming relevant climate policy instruments incl. e.g. non-ETS renewable transport fuels and renewable energy support schemes (see Figure ), were flagged as a key governance issue. Based on reallife examples, this presentation showed clearly that several (existing) schemes do not fully account for specific GHG emissions, reductions or removal claims of various carbon farming activities (see Figure below).  

Either the specific activity falls outside of the schemes scope, or only partially accounts a specific GHG emission saving. Given the range of on-farm climate activities, the carbon farmer would likely end up with a ‘patchwork’ of different climate policy instruments that may or may not be combined to ensure viable climate-smart practices. Given the complex nature of the policy interlinkages, and the observed need for an integrated governance approach, FDN recommended to actively approach and include several relevant ministries, departments and private actors from AFOLU sectors and bio-based industries both at the national level, and EU-level. 

 For more information about this event and the LANDMARC project, please contact:

Eise Spijker, JIN Climate & Sustainability, Co-coordinator of the LANDMARC H2020 project at eise@jin.ngo