Supporting transition towards Carbon Farming through monitoring and certification

Through its Green Deal, the European Union targets carbon neutrality by 2050 to limit climate change. In this context, agriculture must both reduce greenhouse gas emissions and increase soil carbon sequestration capacity.

At the same time, soil degradation has reached alarming levels, with 60–70% of European soils in poor health. To address this, the EU launched the Soil Deal for Europe, requiring changes in agricultural practices to restore and protect soil.

Carbon farming offers a path forward: a set of practices that capture atmospheric carbon in soils, improving fertility through higher organic carbon content. Yet these practices are costly and require financial incentives for farmers.

Voluntary carbon market initiatives have so far largely failed, mainly due to unreliable quantification methods and high administrative burden. To overcome this, the European Commission launched the Carbon Removals and Carbon Farming Regulation (CRCF).

• From research to operations: Leveraging its worldwide geospatial expertise, Airbus will deliver operational services for governments and private actors, integrating the latest agronomic and pedoclimatic research. A long-standing partnership with INRAe ensures scientific excellence.
• State-of-the-art algorithms: With 20+ years of experience and in-depth knowledge of sensors, Airbus has developed advanced atmospheric and spectral processing to monitor vegetation growth (LAI) with uncertainty indicators, crucial for carbon quantification.
• Cost-efficient large-scale production: Using Copernicus data and, when needed, very high-resolution Pléiades Neo imagery, massive processing is enabled through the open-source Geocube Ingester. This scalable architecture supports country-wide analyses at low cost per hectare.
• A lever for agricultural transition: A reliable and affordable MRV system for Carbon Farming will restore trust in carbon credits and support the CRCF in driving large-scale agricultural transformation.