Carbon Markets and Agriculture

Carbon is a keyword for future business sustainability in all sectors and interest is booming around agriculture as a route for carbon sequestration, offsetting and carbon credits. However, agricultural industry is still catching up on what carbon looks like in farming and the challenge of sectoral carbon mitigation, let alone how it might be able to best harness potential carbon and financial benefits. What are the business opportunities, threats and challenges for the sector in terms of carbon management?; What do the realisation of carbon markets mean for the agricultural and rural sectors, and are they a risk or opportunity?

Various surveys, conducted by SAC Consulting and at national agricultural events, show that general knowledge and confidence in discussing carbon is relatively low in the sector. Agriculture and associated rural sectors need to fully understand what carbon means for them now and into the future, and this need is increasingly urgent and more private investment is channelled towards offsetting or green CSR. This project aims to improve understanding of carbon services across the sector, to increase the knowledge, confidence and engagement of industry in carbon issues, enabling stakeholders to represent their interests and concerns within national and international debates and ensure future sustainability of the sector into a new era of carbon-based business.

Project Activities

This project, running throughout 2022, has drawn together consultants, researchers, academic staff, students, farmers, policymakers, and NGOs in a series of interlinked knowledge transfer activities, to collate knowledge and develop a series of concise and accessible materials for industry more general on agricultural carbon markets.