This first EU-wide voluntary certification framework is intended to facilitate the deployment of high quality carbon removals and support the achievement of the EU climate neutrality objective by 2050. The regulation aims to improve the EU’s capacity to quantify, monitor and verify carbon removals activities by establishing reliable certification scheme.
The new law covers different types of carbon removals namely permanent carbon storage, notably through industrial technologies, carbon storage in long-lasting products and carbon farming.
The regulation establishes minimum sustainability requirements to ensure that activities do not lead to environmental damage, whereby carbon farming activities need to generate co-benefits for biodiversity and ecosystems. To ensure transparency of the scheme, and to avoid the risk of fraud and double counting of carbon removals, the regulation envisages creation of a public EU registry for carbon removals.