Monitoring, Reporting and Verification (MRV) for carbon farming

To reach climate neutrality by 2050, the EU does not only count on drastic reductions in greenhouse gas emissions, but also on carbon removals by permanent storage, carbon storage in long-lasting products and carbon farming. As carbon sequestration in soils does not only contribute to climate change mitigation, but usually also improves soil health and resilience of soils against weather extremes, interest in the agricultural sector in business models for carbon farming is growing rapidly. To become a credible business model, it is important that carbon farming is underpinned by robust rules and monitoring, reporting and verification (MRV) systems. ILVO is supporting carbon farming by researching the impact of agricultural practices on carbon sequestration, both by field experiments and modelling, by studying carbon farming as business model (e.g. LIFE CarbonCounts, SoilValues) and by coordinating the EU Soil Mission project MARVIC (2023-2027; https://www.project-marvic.eu/ ) that aims to develop and test a reliable Framework for the design of harmonized, context-specific MRV systems for assessing carbon stock changes in soils and woody biomass and soil GHG emissions. These MRV systems are based on a smart assembly of data, models and remote sensing data. MARVIC is funded in support of the EU Carbon Removal Certification regulation framework and focusses on arable land, grasslands, managed peatlands and agroforestry and woody crop systems. In addition, ILVO is leading one of the focus groups of the Credible project (2023-2026; https://www.project-credible.eu/) that is building a European network for carbon farming.