Negotiators from the Council and the European Parliament reached a provisional political agreement on the Regulation that will govern the first EU-wide certification framework for carbon sequestration, carbon sequestration in agricultural soils and carbon storage. The aim of this voluntary framework is to facilitate and accelerate the implementation of high quality soil carbon sequestration and emission reduction activities in the EU.
This Regulation, once in force, will be the first step towards establishing a comprehensive framework for carbon sequestration and soil emission reductions in EU legislation, contributing to the goal of achieving climate neutrality by 2050. In addition, the concept of carbon sequestration has been included in this regulation, following the definition developed by the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), which refers only to the sequestration of atmospheric and biogenic carbon.
In addition, the regulation will apply to the various carbon sequestration and emission reduction activities, with a clear differentiation between the four types of units concerned: permanent carbon sequestration (storage of atmospheric or biogenic carbon over several centuries); temporary carbon storage in durable products (e.g. wood-based construction products), the duration of which must be at least 35 years and which must be monitored in situ throughout the monitoring period; temporary carbon storage and reduction of soil emissions through carbon sequestration in agricultural soils and thus reduction of carbon and nitrous oxide through soil management. In this respect, the Council expects this activity to reduce soil carbon emissions or, alternatively, to increase carbon sequestration in biological matter (e.g. wetland management, no-tillage, cover cropping practices or reduction of fertiliser use combined with soil management practices).
This move by the Commission means extending the scope of the Regulation to soil emission reductions. Furthermore, it is a requirement for certification that temporary carbon sequestration through carbon sequestration in agricultural soils and the reduction of soil emissions is carried out for at least five years and that land is not acquired for speculative purposes that could negatively affect rural communities. The Commission will therefore be responsible for producing a report by 2026 on the feasibility of certifying activities that lead to reductions in other non-soil emissions (carbon and nitrous oxide). This report will be based on a pilot certification methodology for activities that reduce agricultural emissions from enteric fermentation and manure management.
On the other hand, activities that do not lead to carbon sequestration or soil emission reductions, such as avoided deforestation or renewable energy projects, are not included in the scope of the Regulation. The co-legislators have therefore agreed to exclude enhanced oil recovery from permanent carbon sequestration activities and expressly stipulated that activities and operators in the marine environment are included in the scope of the Regulation.
Ultimately, it should be stressed that the rules will apply to activities within the European Union, however, the Commission will consider the possibility of allowing geological carbon storage in neighbouring third countries, provided that these countries comply with EU environmental and safety standards.
Certification criteria and procedure
The provisional agreement will maintain the requirement in the Commission’s proposal that carbon sequestration activities must meet four general criteria for certification: quantification, additionality, long-term storage and sustainability.
On the basis of these criteria, the Commission, assisted by a group of experts, will develop certification methodologies adapted to the different types of carbon sequestration activities, so that these criteria are applied in a correct, harmonised and cost-effective way. Similarly, the co-legislators have introduced some changes to define more precisely on the basis of which criteria the methodologies should be developed and have included a list of indications on which activities should be prioritised. They also agreed to maintain the main elements defined for the certification process and the voluntary nature, clarifying more precisely how the process works.
In relation to the sustainability of carbon sequestration in agricultural soils, the co-legislators clarified how the sustainability objectives should be interpreted and defined the requirement that carbon sequestration activities in agricultural soils should always have a co-benefit for biodiversity such as prevention of soil degradation, among others.
As regards carbon sequestration activities in agricultural soils, this interim agreement will allow Member States to provide advice to farmers on the application procedure and gives the possibility to establish synergies between the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) Land Parcel Identification System (LPIS) and the information generated in the certification process under this framework.
Ultimately, this provisional agreement will be forwarded to the Member States’ representatives in the Council (Coreper) and to the Parliament’s Environment Committee. Once approved, the text will need to be formally adopted by both institutions, after finalisation by the legal-linguistic experts, before it can be published in the Official Journal of the EU and enter into force.
Net Benefit
Net benefits relating to carbon removals or reductions will generate units corresponding to one tonne of CO2 of certified net benefit resulting from a carbon removal or soil emission reduction activity. Furthermore, the co-legislators have agreed that certified units can only be used for EU climate targets and the Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC) and cannot contribute to third country NDCs or to any international compliance scheme. Consequently, these rules together with the corresponding adjustments will be reviewed in 2026.
European Union Register
The co-legislators have requested the Commission to design a common and transparent EU-wide electronic register four years after the entry into force of the Regulation, in order to make information on certification and units, including certificates of conformity and summaries of certification audits, publicly available and accessible. Until that time, certification schemes under the framework should provide for public registers based on automated and interoperable systems. Similarly, the co-legislators have laid down rules on the financing of the EU register, which will be financed by fixed, annual user fees proportional to the use of the register.
