Reaching the EU’s commitment to climate neutrality by 2050 will require eliminating greenhouse gas emissions and removing carbon from the atmosphere. As forests provide a natural solution to remove carbon, the EU strongly relies on its forests to achieve its climate neutrality target through carbon sequestration in forests and soils, retaining carbon in wood products and avoiding emissions by using wood-based products instead of fossil products.

“Carbon farming” practices aim to enhance the carbon storage in forests and soils. The EU has put in place a framework to implement carbon farming initiatives and is developing a regulatory framework for the accounting and certification of carbon removals from the atmosphere. However, forest types differ considerably across Europe, and forests are also threatened by the impacts of climate change, including disturbances such as pest outbreaks, fires, winds, etc. Monitoring additionality created through carbon farming, sink permanence and the prevention of leakages are also crucial challenges.

Our ThinkForest event asks:

• How can forest management practices play a key role in carbon farming?
• What are the opportunities and challenges with forest carbon farming?
• How can we boost the credibility of the carbon farming market?

Please note that this is only an in-person event and there will be no online streaming.

Programme

• 09:00 Networking with breakfast
• 10:00 Opening Words
  Helga Pülzl, Assistant Director for Policy Support, European Forest Institute
• 10:05 Becoming carbon neutral in Europe: How can carbon farming in forests contribute?
  Ana Rey, Senior Scientist, Spanish National Research Council
  Tommaso Chiti, Professor, University of Tuscia
• 10:30 Panel Discussion: Opportunities and challenges for carbon farming in forests
  Moderator: Sarah Adams, European Forest Institute
  Our panelists include:
  Jurij Krajcic, European Commission, DG Clima
  Julia Grimault, Team Leader, Institute for Climate Economics (I4CE)
  Piotr Borkowski, Executive Director, European State Forest Association (EUSTAFOR)
  Margherita Miceli, Forest Policy Manager, Confederation of European Paper Industries (Cepi)
  Q&A
• 11:25 Closing remarks
  Helga Pülzl, Assistant Director for Policy Support, European Forest Institute