The 2015 Paris Agreement marked a turning point in global climate action, setting a shared ambition to limit global warming to well below 2°C—and ideally to 1.5°C. Yet today, the trajectory of current policies and emissions suggests we are still heading beyond these thresholds, with far-reaching consequences for ecosystems, economies, and societies.
Reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions remains essential. But it is no longer enough on its own. To meet climate goals, we must also actively remove carbon from the atmosphere. Carbon removal is now emerging as a critical pillar of climate strategy.
In response to this need, the European Union introduced the Carbon Removal and Carbon Farming (CRCF) framework in 2024. This voluntary certification scheme aims to bring greater transparency, credibility, and standardisation to carbon removal activities. It defines how carbon can be reliably quantified and verified across areas such as carbon farming, long-term storage, and carbon embedded in products. Among these, carbon farming plays a particularly important role, promoting land management practices that increase carbon sequestration in soils and biomass while reducing emissions from land use.
However, ensuring that these carbon removals are measurable, verifiable, and scalable remains a key challenge.
This is where Earth Observation (EO) becomes essential.
The ESA-funded project EO in Support of Carbon Markets was created to address this gap. Its objective is to advance EO-based methodologies for Monitoring, Reporting and Verification (MRV) of carbon removals, with a particular focus on carbon farming. By combining satellite data and remote sensing technologies, the project enables consistent, transparent, and cost-effective assessment of carbon sequestration processes across large areas.
At the core of the project is a user-centred approach. Early Adopters (including carbon project developers and land managers) actively integrate the EO solutions developed by the consortium into their operational workflows. The consortium brings together complementary expertise from Planetek Italia (Italy), Assimila (UK), and IABG (Germany).
The project supports the implementation of the CRCF framework across three key areas:
- Soil carbon in mineral soils and agroforestry
- Afforestation on unused or severely degraded land
- Rewetting of peatlands
Across these activities, the project develops and delivers open-source, FAIR-compliant algorithms, datasets, and on-demand cloud services for MRV. By combining scientific rigour with operational usability, it aims to make certified carbon removals more accessible, reliable, and scalable.
