The 2nd edition of the Carbon Farming Summit took place between March 4th and 6th in Dublin, Ireland. Organized by project CREDIBLE and sponsored by Agricarbon and BASF, the summit brings together stakeholders with the objective to expand climate actions across EU through sharing knowledge and experiences. Compared to last year, there were more than double the participants. It’s amazing to see the surge of interest in carbon farming across the EU and beyond. We were also really pleased to see more discussions around uncertainty assessments and model benchmarking, and the session CinSOIL and EARSC co-organized clearly sparked interest. On March 6th at 11:00, summit participants filled up the room at Dublin Castle to discuss one of the most critical challenges in scaling Earth Observation (EO)-based MRV (Monitoring, Reporting, and Verification) for carbon removals: ensuring we have robust benchmarking and a solid approach to addressing uncertainties.
Our session, which built on the discourse we kick-started last October in Copenhagen at the EEA and ESA “Second Forum on EO for Carbon Markets” focused on three key questions:
1. How can we properly account for uncertainties in EO-based MRV for carbon removals?
2. What best practices are needed for benchmarking models, ensuring consistency across different soils, climates, land uses, and farming practices?
3. What policy frameworks are required to ensure transparent and fair data governance in carbon farming?
Aligning policy and market expectations when it comes to uncertainties is critical to ensure acceptance and scaling of EO-based MRV systems.
With EO-based MRV playing a pivotal role in boosting the potential of carbon farming, tackling these challenges is more important than ever. Addressing uncertainties in carbon monitoring systems is not just an academic exercise but it has real-world implications for how we scale and implement carbon farming effectively. Three excellent speakers shared their insights and very valuable lessons: Ann Mari Fjaeraa (NILU and EEA) on the Copernicus in-situ component; Can Atik (Wageningen Social & Economic Research) on data governance in agriculture; Mila Luleva (Rabobank) on their work on carbon farming with the Acorn program. Mila’s presentation with real life examples from agroforestry carbon removals projects truly showed how uncertainties affect the impact of these activities, with potential consequences for all stakeholders involved.
We had so many meaningful discussions and sessions addressing critical challenges for carbon farming, with some key actions already taking place. That is wonderful, yet is far from enough. Time is ticking, and we can’t let “perfect” stand in the way of “done”. We need to strike a balance if we truly want to move “from theory to practice”, the motto of this year’s summit.