The European Parliament Wednesday adopted a certification scheme that could allow farmers to benefit from carbon captured in their soils but which alarms climate activists.
The text, agreed late February between the lawmakers and member states, harmonises the criteria for carbon storage in Europe and facilitates monitoring, expanding the scope of carbon credit trading.
The measures were approved by a vote of 441 in favour, 139 against and 41 abstentions.
“The legislation covers different types of carbon removals, namely permanent carbon storage through industrial technologies, carbon storage in long-lasting products and carbon farming,” the parliament said in a statement.
“It aims to boost their use and improve the EU’s capacity to quantify, monitor and verify such activities in order to counter greenwashing.”
The legislation mainly targets nascent technologies to capture carbon emissions at heavy industry sites such as steel and cement makers, before injecting it deep underground for long time periods.
But certificates would also be handed out to wood constructions expected to last at least 35 years, and to agricultural activities that trap carbon in soils, prairies, forests and peat bogs.
Incentives to reduce methane emissions from livestock or from animal waste through changes in foodstock will be introduced in an update planned for 2026.
But Carbon Market Watch, an NGO, denounced the measures as an opportunity for “greenwashing”, saying the emphasis on carbon capture risks distracting from efforts to reduce emissions in the first place.
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