Soil plays a central role in the global carbon (C) cycle and the fight against climate change as it contains the largest existing organic C stock on earth. Natural processes exacerbated by climate change and unsustainable agricultural soil management practices are contributing to the steady decrease in organic C stocks in farmland. Carbon farming practices, underpinned by various incentives, can be used to maintain and increase C stocks in agricultural soils. Carbon credit mechanisms, that is, tradable credits each corresponding to one tonne of CO2eq, are one such incentive. Carbon credits are issued upon the demonstration of increased soil C stocks over time through the application of C accounting methodologies for each agroecosystem and farming practice. This study presents a detailed and critical analysis of carbon credit methodologies, focusing on agricultural soil C in temperate zones, by comparing the European Commission proposal for a regulation on carbon removals with relevant certification frameworks implemented in extra‐European Union industrialized countries (Australia, Alberta in Canada, United States). Based on this, we recommend strengthening the European Commission proposal by (i) expanding the list of eligible agricultural practices, (ii) setting a minimum maintenance time frame for each agricultural practice and incentivizing longer duration, (iii) setting the Good Agricultural and Environmental Conditions of the European Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) as a regulatory baseline, (iv) beyond the regulatory baseline, defining a farm level baseline in terms of carbon farming practices applied that can be monitored through the Integrated Administration and Control System of the CAP, (v) clarifying the interaction between the European Commission proposal of regulation and the CAP, the Soil Monitoring Law, and Land Use/Cover Area Frame Survey inventory, (vi) retaining a portion of unsold carbon credits as a buffer against the risk of reversal and (vii) applying a default discount to account for leakage risk if yield reductions are observed. We propose these recommendations to guarantee effective environmental protection, technical and bureaucratic feasibility as well as economic affordability for farmers.

中文翻译：

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从现有农业土壤碳去除方法中汲取的经验教训来推动欧盟政策


土壤在全球碳 (C) 循环和应对气候变化中发挥着核心作用，因为它含有地球上最大的现有有机碳库。气候变化和不可持续的农业土壤管理做法加剧了自然过程，导致农田有机碳储量稳步下降。在各种激励措施的支持下，碳农业实践可用于维持和增加农业土壤中的碳储量。碳信用机制，即每个对应一吨二氧化碳当量的可交易信用，就是这样的激励措施之一。通过对每个农业生态系统和农业实践应用碳核算方法，证明土壤碳储量随着时间的推移而增加，从而发放碳信用额。本研究通过将欧盟委员会关于碳清除监管的提案与欧盟外工业化国家（澳大利亚、阿尔伯塔省）实施的相关认证框架进行比较，对碳信用方法进行了详细而批判性的分析，重点关注温带地区的农业土壤碳。加拿大、美国）。 基于此，我们建议通过以下方式加强欧盟委员会的提案：（i）扩大合格农业实践的清单，（ii）为每种农业实践设定最短维护时间框架并鼓励更长的持续时间，（iii）制定良好农业和环境将欧洲共同农业政策 (CAP) 的条件作为监管基线，(iv) 在监管基线之外，根据所应用的碳农业实践定义农场水平基线，可通过 CAP 的综合管理和控制系统进行监控， (v) 澄清欧盟委员会的监管提案与 CAP、土壤监测法和土地利用/覆盖面积框架调查清单之间的相互作用， (vi) 保留部分未售出的碳信用额作为逆转风险的缓冲(vii) 如果观察到收益率下降，则应用违约折扣来解决泄漏风险。我们提出这些建议是为了保证有效的环境保护、技术和官僚可行性以及农民的经济承受能力。