UK Soil & Farm Carbon Code
This project, led by the Farming & Wildlife Advisory Group South West, establishes minimum standards for soil carbon projects in the UK. It provides guidelines for measuring, monitoring, and verifying soil carbon, ensuring transparency and consistency for the voluntary carbon market. The initiative also supports practices that boost soil health and biodiversity while increasing carbon storage.
This project is one of 24 case studies published in 2024, published alongside a report evaluating the process, impact and value for money of NEIRF Rounds 1 and 2.
Access full case studyThe development of the UK Farm & Soil Carbon (FSCC) code has the potential to unlock carbon investments for building soil health and ecological recovery of soils, which will deliver multiple benefits as outlined in the 25-Year Environment Plan and aid economic recovery post covid.
In the 12 months from commencement the project will:
- Demonstrate the commercialisation of soil carbon sequestration in agricultural soils through a pilot application of herbal leys over100 Ha’s of land in a Gloucestershire pilot.
- Publish an evaluation of emerging carbon offset mechanisms for suitability and value to UK farmers and UK carbon investors / buyers, as a way to generate direct carbon revenue from restorative farming practices or to support the development of blended environmental investment products. The scope will include but go beyond herbal lays, to consider a range of low carbon / carbon removals farming practices accessible to UK farms.
- Propose a UK Farm and Soil Carbon Code for wider UK application.
This will create a framework to guide project eligibility and robust protocols to measure, report and verify (MRV) carbon removals as a common foundation to support a range of investment ready projects in future (not just carbon offsets). An expert consortium will draft the code and a range of industry stakeholder groups will be engaged in a consultation process to secure feedback and advocacy.
A Code is vital to underpin the successful and responsible scaling of agricultural carbon investments in future, unlocking significant value to UK farm and landowners of £500m annual ‘carbon removals’ revenue by 2030. Already 100,000 Hectares of land owner permissions have been received in support of the project.
The development of the UK Soil & Farm Carbon (SFCC) code has the potential to unlock carbon investments for building soil organic matter and ecological recovery of soils, which will deliver multiple benefits as outline in the 25-Year Environment Plan and aid economic recovery post covid. Our pilot proposal will generate immediate and long-term carbon offset opportunities for farming businesses to monetise the carbon sequestration by catalysing the development of standards for the code’s development in line with the Woodland Carbon Code and Peatland Code.
Project Aim
The UK Farm Soil Carbon Code aims to restore our farm soils affected through conventional farming methods which have reduced Soil Organic Matter (SOM), run off and storage capacity, nutrient retention and has led to erosion and loss of valuable top soil, as well as a deterioration in biodiversity of macro and microfauna.
Project partners
Farming and Wildlife Advisory Group (FWAG) South West
Sierra View Consulting
Funding model
The UK FSCC will unlock mechanisms that allow investment in regenerative land management that would help deliver the 25 Year Environment Plan (YEP) wildlife restoration targets. With a Code to provide a common approach, GGRs from land use can become part of the carbon accounting mechanisms via verifiable claims from independent audits supported by the Code. For the opportunity to scale successfully a robust and widely accepted code is necessary to ensure the credibility of LUS GGRs, demonstrate the value and attract larger investments. Sitting alongside the woodland code and peatland code, the UKF&SCC would ensure that all UK land use sectors can contribute to meeting the UK’s climate mitigation targets.
Our project focuses explicitly on unlocking soil carbon sequestration and farm GHG reduction. While investors also value other co-benefits, carbon sequestration is the most readily measured and commercialised yet the most challenging to incorporate into natural capital investments today.
Our project serves both to generate direct income from carbon sequestration through the pilot, and accelerate the potential for future projects to validate and monetize soil carbon sequestration as part of wider ecosystem service offers.
Future work may combine carbon value with other ecosystem benefits and incorporate this into more sophisticated blended investments or green bonds. These options will be explored during the project but are not within scope for our bid.
Future Investment Potential
The main focus of our project is to unlock opportunities to invest in soil carbon sequestration delivered from sustainable regenerative land management and enable the land use sector (LUS) to demonstrate significant contributions to climate change mitigation. Ramping up greenhouse gas removal (GGR) from agriculture could sequester at least 10 MtCO2e yr-1 by 2050; c.10% of the UK’s target. While the initial pilot in Gloucestershire will contribute only a small fraction of that potential, the UK FSCC is aimed at unlocking a much wider opportunity across the UK.
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