Green Forum • 21 February, 2024 at 9:00 AM
Council and European Parliament negotiators reached a provisional political agreement on a regulation to establish the first EU-level certification framework for permanent carbon removals, carbon farming, and carbon storage in products.
The voluntary framework is intended to facilitate and speed up the deployment of high-quality carbon removal and soil emission reduction activities in the EU.
Once entered into force, the regulation will be the first step towards introducing a comprehensive carbon removal and soil emission reduction framework in EU legislation and contribute to the EU's ambitious goal of reaching climate neutrality by 2050, as set out in the European climate law.
This certification framework will stimulate innovative carbon removal technologies and carbon farming, which contribute to the EU's climate, environment, and zero pollution objectives. This new framework will help the EU achieve climate neutrality by certifying carbon removals and carbon farming to ensure that they are transparent and reliable, preventing green disinformation and creating new business opportunities.
The provisionally agreed regulation will improve the EU's ability to quantify, monitor, and verify the authenticity of all these forms of carbon removal. In particular, it lays down rules for the recognition of certification schemes that demonstrate compliance with the EU framework, as well as a specific set of criteria to ensure a high quality of carbon removals and the transparency and credibility of the certification process.
An EU register will be established to create a high level of transparency on certified carbon removals. This will be implemented within 4 years and in the meantime, existing registries of certification schemes can be used.