Farmers will be able to sell carbon credits to companies like Ryanair from their farms outside the agricultural sector, Christian Holzleitner, Head of Land Economy and Carbon Removals at the European Commission DG for climate action told the Teagasc carbon farming conference in Ashtown.
He said it is difficult to measure carbon in soils to establish a baseline, and there will be varying levels of carbon sequestration in different soils.
A national framework for carbon farming in Ireland is being developed, with input from farmers and stakeholders.
Bernard Harris of the Department of Agriculture said his officet had received 457 responses from feedback, one-third of which were from farmers, showing broad agreement there should be a compensation mechanism to reward eco-systems services and that carbon removal, greenhouse gas reductions and biodiversity measures needed to be included in the carbon farming framework
There are concerns and uncertainties among farmers about who should pay for carbon farming services, the potential impact on land use, and the level of trust in the system.
Christian Holzleitner said “a farmer sells a credit to Ryanair. Yes, that’s perfectly possible. And probably the national inventory may not even see it, but it is perfectly possible and according to the rules of the carbon farming certification programme, it should always be like that, that this is accounted towards the LULUCF target of the member state where this carbon removal is generated.”
