In March, the third European Carbon Farming Summit took place in Padova. After Valencia in 2024 and Dublin in 2025, the summit has established itself as one of the leading European forums dedicated to carbon farming and regenerative agriculture. More than 700 participants attended the event in Padova, reflecting the growing interest in climate-smart land management and carbon removals.
While previous editions focused heavily on defining concepts, methodologies, and certification approaches, this year’s discussions signalled a broader transition. Across many sessions, the focus shifted from exploring whether carbon farming can work to understanding how it can be implemented at scale.
A recurring theme throughout the summit was the implementation of the EU Carbon Removals and Carbon Farming Certification Framework (CRCF). With the regulation now entering its operational phase, discussions increasingly centred on practical questions: how to create functioning markets, how to ensure robust monitoring and verification, how to support farmer participation, and how to align climate objectives with broader environmental outcomes.
CinSOIL contributed again to the technical topics surrounding MRV frameworks for Carbon Farming. Our co-founder and CTO Antonella Succurro co-organized with Hui Xu and Tommy D’Hose from ILVO the workshop “Data Sharing in Action: From Uncertainty to Trust in Carbon Farming MRV” that took place on Wednesday, March 18th. The expert pitches covered the topics of the usage of Long Term Monitoring sites data (Tommy D’Hose, ILVO) and of ENVRI data (Mariana Salgado, ICOS), with real world examples from carbon project presented by Wiebke Schulz (REgeneration) and Sofia Biffi (Aarhus University). Lucia Perugini (EEA) offered insights on EEA’s Copernicus In Situ program, and Antonella brought the attention on the most important technical challenges around data and models for Carbon Farming MRV.
“My message is clear: available data is not always usable data. We need more initiatives working together to enable sound assessment of uncertainty and model benchmarking in carbon farming MRV”.
Dr. Antonella Succurro, CTO and co-founder, CinSOIL GmbH
A very important theme was market development. Participants discussed how carbon farming can generate reliable revenue streams for farmers while maintaining trust among buyers and investors. Questions surrounding financing mechanisms, ownership of carbon outcomes, and long-term demand for certified removals featured prominently throughout the summit. The emergence of initiatives such as the CRCF Buyers’ Club reflects a growing recognition that market infrastructure will be just as important as methodologies and certification standards.
Overall, the atmosphere in Padova reflected a sector that is rapidly maturing. Many of the foundational discussions that characterised earlier editions are now giving way to questions of implementation, interoperability, and market uptake. While significant challenges remain, particularly around measurement, financing, and farmer engagement, the summit highlighted the growing momentum behind efforts to build credible and scalable carbon farming systems across Europe.
As Europe moves from policy design toward implementation, the coming years will likely determine whether carbon farming becomes a niche climate instrument or an integral component of the agricultural transition.