August 9, 2026

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August 9, 2026

Newsletter

The European Post

Policy • Diplomacy • Strategic Insight

LATEST
New EU Gas Market Rules Take Effect With Consumer SafeguardsDeforestation Regulation Holds Its December Deadline Despite CutsDigital Omnibus Delays Europe’s High-Risk AI Deadline to 2027Europe’s Schools Confront a Widening Basic Skills GapRule of Law Report Finds Progress but Trust Still LagsIRIS2 Gains 66 Satellites as Brussels Signs the Rollout DealNature Restoration Plans Come Due as Member States Race a DeadlineECB Rates Hold at 2.25 Percent as Frankfurt Waits on the DataEU Budget Talks Turn to Cohesion as Ireland Takes OverWildfire Response Stretches Europe’s Emergency Fleet ThinCan Europe’s Quantum Plan Match Its Big Ambitions?Armenia Edges West as Moscow’s Grip Slips AwayEurope Inherits the World’s Aid Bill It Cannot Fully PayAir Passenger Rights Get Their First Overhaul in Two DecadesErasmus Opens a 5 Billion Euro Round for Skills and MobilityCeuta Crisis Pushes the EU Toward Faster Migrant ReturnsBulky Parcels Face a Packaging Crackdown From August 12Can Europe Build Its Drone Wall Before 2030 Arrives?Indonesia’s Trade Deal With Europe Nears Its Final SignatureEurope Leans on Beijing to Keep Climate Talks Alive Before AntalyaNew EU Gas Market Rules Take Effect With Consumer SafeguardsDeforestation Regulation Holds Its December Deadline Despite CutsDigital Omnibus Delays Europe’s High-Risk AI Deadline to 2027Europe’s Schools Confront a Widening Basic Skills GapRule of Law Report Finds Progress but Trust Still LagsIRIS2 Gains 66 Satellites as Brussels Signs the Rollout DealNature Restoration Plans Come Due as Member States Race a DeadlineECB Rates Hold at 2.25 Percent as Frankfurt Waits on the DataEU Budget Talks Turn to Cohesion as Ireland Takes OverWildfire Response Stretches Europe’s Emergency Fleet ThinCan Europe’s Quantum Plan Match Its Big Ambitions?Armenia Edges West as Moscow’s Grip Slips AwayEurope Inherits the World’s Aid Bill It Cannot Fully PayAir Passenger Rights Get Their First Overhaul in Two DecadesErasmus Opens a 5 Billion Euro Round for Skills and MobilityCeuta Crisis Pushes the EU Toward Faster Migrant ReturnsBulky Parcels Face a Packaging Crackdown From August 12Can Europe Build Its Drone Wall Before 2030 Arrives?Indonesia’s Trade Deal With Europe Nears Its Final SignatureEurope Leans on Beijing to Keep Climate Talks Alive Before Antalya

Carbon removal certification under scrutiny in EU farming push

Benedikt Ólafsson
Legislative Analyst, Environment and Biodiversity

Vienna: The European Parliamentary Research Service published a briefing on 13 May 2026 assessing the state of play in implementing the EU Carbon Removal and Carbon Farming Regulation, the framework instrument that establishes voluntary certification of carbon removals achieved through industrial technologies, carbon farming and storage. The instrument, adopted in 2024 and now in early implementation, will shape how the bloc accounts for the negative emissions component of its climate strategy through the 2030s and beyond.

The regulation establishes four categories of removal activity. Permanent carbon removal covers industrial technologies — direct air capture and storage, bioenergy with carbon capture and storage, and enhanced weathering. Carbon farming covers agricultural and forestry practices that enhance soil and biomass carbon sequestration. Carbon storage in products covers durable storage in materials such as construction wood and bio-based plastics. Soil emission reduction covers practices that reduce nitrous oxide and methane emissions from agricultural soils.

The certification framework defines quality criteria for each category: quantification, additionality, long-term storage, and sustainability. The criteria are operationalised through delegated acts and through methodologies developed by the Commission with input from independent expert groups. The first methodologies are under development for the most operationally mature removal categories, with progressive expansion expected across the implementation horizon. The certification system is designed to integrate with existing voluntary carbon markets while maintaining the public-policy standards that the regulation establishes as the European reference point.

The regulation’s strategic role intersects directly with the broader climate policy framework. The Commission’s 90 per cent emissions reduction target for 2040, adopted in 2025, sets the trajectory that the ETS, the Effort Sharing Regulation and the LULUCF Regulation must operationalise. The integration of certified removals into compliance frameworks — as a complement to emission reductions rather than a substitute — has been among the most contested questions in the ongoing climate policy review. Environmental organisations have argued that loose integration risks dilution of mitigation ambition, while industry voices have pushed for flexibility that recognises the unavoidable residual emissions of hard-to-abate sectors.

Carbon farming has emerged as a specific policy priority. The Commission’s Vision for Agriculture and Food, presented in February 2025, identifies carbon farming as one of the routes through which the agricultural sector can contribute to climate goals while generating diversified income for farmers. The Common Agricultural Policy 2028 to 2034 architecture, currently under negotiation, will determine whether carbon farming receives mainstream CAP funding and whether the certification framework operates as a market-based parallel channel or as an integrated component of CAP support.

The certification framework’s interaction with EU agricultural law has produced significant operational complexity. The Sustainable Use of Pesticides Regulation, the Nitrates Directive, the Water Framework Directive and the Soil Monitoring Regulation all establish requirements that affect carbon farming practices. The Commission has emphasised that certification can coexist with these requirements, but practical guidance to farmers and certification bodies remains under development. Stakeholders have called for streamlined documentation requirements and for digital integration of monitoring data across the relevant regulatory frameworks.

The market dimension is taking shape. Several Member States have established or are considering national schemes that operate within or alongside the EU framework. France’s Label Bas Carbone, Germany’s emerging market for agricultural removals, and the Nordic forest carbon market provide divergent national templates that the EU framework must accommodate. Voluntary corporate buyers — including major retailers, food processors and financial institutions — have signalled interest in certified European removals as a credible component of their net-zero strategies, provided that the certification framework’s integrity meets investor and regulatory expectations.

The implementation timeline is gradual. The first batch of certified removals is expected to be available in 2027, with progressive scaling through the late 2020s. The Commission has signalled that the review of the regulation, scheduled for 2029, will allow adjustments based on operational experience. The regulation’s success will be measured not only by the volume of certified removals but by its contribution to integrating negative emissions into the broader climate policy architecture in a way that supports the 2040 target without weakening the mitigation imperative.

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