The European Carbon Farming Summit (ECFS) 2026, held in Padua from 17–19 March 2026, once again highlighted the importance of collaboration between private actors, policymakers, researchers and farmers to shape the evolution of carbon farming business models and MRV frameworks. In this context, MARVIC partners Silvia Coderoni (University of Teramo) and Niklas Witt (Aarhus University) co-organised a session on the importance of trust, certification frameworks and local initiatives to scaling carbon farming, building on their work on the socio-economic aspects of MRV systems and different stakeholders’ perspectives.

As the discussions highlighted, trust is still the biggest hurdle following the 2022 market "crash" triggered by greenwashing concerns. Stakeholders, particularly farmers, identify low and uncertain payments, complicated MRV systems, and changing regulations as major roadblocks. To address these barriers, the session stressed the need for publicly funded advisory services, as farmers often tend to trust local experts.

Regulatory and methodological stability were also acknowledged as key factors for success. In this sense, the Carbon Removals and Carbon Farming (CRCF) regulation should be aligned with international standards like the Science Based Targets initiative (SBTi), and carbon accounting frameworks should be standardised. The economic aspect was also explored, with discussions evolving around the prices of high-integrity credits (those that include co-benefits like biodiversity) and how public-private partnerships may help fill gaps between demand and supply of credits.

Project Credible has recently made available an overview of sessions, contributions, and recommendations, capturing the main outcomes of the ECFS26. This document contains more details of this session and a series of concrete recommendations aimed at policymakers and other stakeholders. You can also revisit the full session here.