![]() To increase the supply of available offsets and potentially push their prices down, companies are pushing for a wide scope of certification beyond carbon removals that could undermine the entire integrity of a removal framework. A wide scope of certification for a large supply of offsets From the perspective of many companies, public funds, such as the EU Common Agricultural Policy, should subsidize the expensive carbon market scheme that primarily benefits them. While the EC plans to restrict the framework to the EU, at least for now, companies from different sectors advocate for opening the framework up for international markets - private markets, as well as potential schemes at the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) level - to generate an even larger supply of offsets, causing major concerns for climate justice, human rights abuses and land grabbing. Companies involved in the generation of those credits, especially agrochemical giants, aim to make removal credits widely usable to ensure a large and stable market. Fossil fuel companies - regulated under the EU’s cap-and-trade scheme - are asking for the integration of the credits into the EU Emissions Trading System (ETS) compliance market to meet their obligatory emissions reduction targets. Agribusiness is pushing for voluntary offsets within their own supply chain, so-called “insetting,” taking note of the increasing competition for offsets with other sectors. EU-certified offsets designed to maintain the status quoĬorporates from all sectors are eager for EU-certified carbon credits but are not aligned on the specifics of how this should be done. Our analysis shows that corporate demands for carbon farming focus on three main areas: 1. The EC framework will likely allow the trade of carbon farming credits on voluntary carbon markets and possibly even the integration into government-run compliance schemes as early as 2030. Corporate polluters see the new framework as a massive opportunity to generate great amounts of carbon credits that will allow continued emissions and delay urgently needed emissions cuts. It plays a crucial role in corporate net-zero pledges that rely on the assumption that companies’ continued and even increased emissions can be balanced out by removing carbon from the atmosphere, particularly by buying carbon offsets. This report shows that “carbon farming” is part of a rapidly growing corporate agenda pushed by big polluters from the agriculture and fossil fuel industry alike. “Carbon farming” - primarily, carbon sequestration in land sinks, such as forests or soils - has become a new buzzword in recent climate debates, and the EC is promoting carbon farming as a key solution in the upcoming European Union (EU) Carbon Removal Certification Framework. The European Commission (EC) sees itself as a trailblazer in creating an overarching framework to certify all kinds of carbon removals.
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