CO2 – Land is a German organisation, a member of the 4per1000 Initiative, which is taking concrete steps to achieve the Initiative’s aims. Remember that: “if the global content of organic carbon in the soil increased by 4 per 1000 (0.4 percent) a year, this could compensate completely for all anthropogenic carbon emissions that affect the climate“.
In the regional context in which CO2 – Land operates, this target could be reached through limited measures. The main aim of the project is to combat climate change using arable land as a significant CO2 sink. In this context, farming and civil society come together. Businesses and citizens can voluntarily join farmers by buying CO2 certificates to allow farmers to create humus in their fields, thus forming an alliance to protect the climate in a regional and transparent context.
So researchers, farmers and citizens collaborate to develop farming practices that, in a given regional context, help increase the humus content of their soils through the capture of CO2. The methods and contractual basis for the preservation of carbon in the soil are formulated, developed and tested. At the end of the project it is hoped to obtain a self-sufficient business model for the regional trading of CO2 emissions certificates. In this way farmers can be compensated directly for limiting or blocking emissions that damage the climate, to the benefit of the region that supports the initiative.
The approach described above is very interesting because it puts farmers, researchers and citizens on the same level. A way to establish rules and procedures that work for everyone and with the possibility of direct democratic control by the participants.
Gruppo Suolo Europa 