Carbon farming is increasingly promoted as a strategy to achieve net-zero climate targets. What are the prospects of this avenue of climate change mitigation, and which actors are currently involved?
In this new paper, me , Elina Andersson and Klara Fischer examine voluntary carbon market programmes through a global inventory and discourse analysis to identify key actors and how they frame and implement carbon farming.
Methods: We draw on a quantitative mapping and qualitative discourse analysis of carbon farming programmes that aim to generate carbon credits for the voluntary market. Our selection for the quantitative analysis was based on that programmes: i) focus on crop or livestock farming practices (not only afforestation and reforestation); ii) target farmers in their marketing; iii) have a website with operational details; iv) were operational during the data collection period (March 2023-February 2024). The discourse analysis focused on nine programmes selected to represent the span of forms of initiatives that we found in the quantitative analysis.
Findings We conclude that programmes mainly target large-scale farmers in the Global North. A majority of the programmes promote a ‘triple win’ narrative – climate mitigation, sustainable agriculture, and farmer profit – under a regenerative agriculture branding. However, practical commitment to transformation is limited, often serving corporate interests. A minority of programmes, particularly those developed by newcomers not previously established on the global agricultural market, take a more inclusive, bottom-up approach to tailor their carbon farming practices.
We conclude that when carbon is treated as a tradable commodity, there is a risk that broader environmental and social goals will become sidelined. Therefore, carbon farming programmes should be supported by governance mechanisms beyond voluntary markets.