Brussels adopts first EU carbon farming certification methodologies
The European Commission has adopted the first certification methodologies for carbon farming under the EU’s Carbon Removals and Carbon Farming (CRCF) Regulation, completing a second major building block of the world’s first government-run voluntary certification framework for carbon removals. The delegated regulation was adopted by the Commission on Thursday 9 July and transmitted to the Council of the European Union in Brussels on Friday 10 July, opening the scrutiny period that must pass before the rules can enter into force.
The new methodologies set out how operators of carbon farming activities located in the EU can demonstrate compliance with the CRCF’s quality criteria, which cover quantification, additionality, storage, monitoring and liability, and sustainability. Only activities meeting these tests will be able to generate certified units that are eligible under the Union framework. The adopted text updates draft rules that the Commission put out for public consultation between 22 January and 19 February 2026, which covered three initial activity groups: agroforestry systems that integrate trees into cropland and grazing land, the rewetting and restoration of peatlands, and afforestation carried out in line with ecological principles.
The carbon farming rules complement the delegated act on permanent carbon removals adopted on 3 February 2026, published as Delegated Regulation (EU) 2026/285, which established certification methodologies for direct air capture with carbon storage, biogenic emissions capture with carbon storage, and biochar carbon removal. Together, the two delegated acts operationalise the parent CRCF Regulation (EU) 2024/3012, which entered into force in December 2024, alongside Implementing Regulation (EU) 2025/2358 of November 2025, which governs certification schemes, certification bodies and audit processes.
For the land sector, the significance lies in the creation of an EU-wide, legally grounded route to result-based payments. The Commission has framed the carbon farming methodologies as a way for farmers and foresters to earn supplementary income for verified climate action while improving soil health, biodiversity and landscape resilience, and as a contribution to the EU’s land use, land-use change and forestry targets and its 2050 climate neutrality objective. Existing certification schemes are able to apply to the Commission for recognition against the adopted methodologies, with recognition decisions valid for five years, and the Commission has said it will establish an EU Buyers’ Club to pool voluntary corporate demand for CRCF units.
The adoption also lands at a sensitive moment for EU carbon policy more broadly. The Commission is due to assess by 31 July 2026 how permanently stored removals could be accounted for within the EU Emissions Trading System, and further CRCF methodologies covering carbon storage in bio-based construction products are expected by the end of 2026, alongside an assessment of whether to extend carbon farming to livestock-related emissions reductions. The first certified units under the framework are expected to follow once schemes are recognised against the newly adopted rules.
