Verra has approved the first Verified Carbon Units (VCUs) from a project using Verified Carbon Standard (VCS) Methodology VM0042 Improved Agricultural Land Management. This week, 64,645 VCUs generated by the Involtor Future Agriculture East-Europe Project (Verra Project 3973) were verified, following the project’s registration in Verra’s VCS Program. This marks an important milestone in the development of soil carbon projects as a viable approach for large-scale climate action through the voluntary carbon market. The project was developed by Involtor (external).
VM0042 is a robust and comprehensive methodology for quantifying greenhouse gas emission reductions and soil organic carbon (SOC) removals resulting from the adoption of improved agricultural land management (IALM) practices.
The Involtor Future Agriculture East-Europe Project’s total expected emission reductions and removals amount to 480,000 tCO2e over 30 years. The finance the project generates from the sale of carbon credits will help the project maintain and even scale its operations.
The quantification approach used by this project leverages biogeochemical modeling, combined with physical soil sampling and classic laboratory analyses.
Verra is actively advancing registration and verification requests for additional projects using VM0042. Soil carbon projects are an essential climate mitigation approach, and Verra is catalyzing this important work. Currently, there are 72 projects under validation and 52 under development in the VCS pipeline, making VM0042 the second-most used methodology in the VCS Program. In addition to the registration and verification announced here, AgreenaCarbon (external) completed the successful registration of the AgreenaCarbon Project (Verra Project 4022), the first large-scale agricultural cropland project—and the second project overall—under VM0042.
As part of Verra’s digitalization initiative, VM0042, v2.1 is available as a digitalized methodology through the Verra Project Hub. For a streamlined project submission process, Verra encourages proponents to use the digital versions of methodologies as they become available.
About the Involtor Future Agriculture East-Europe Project
The Involtor Future Agriculture East-Europe Project supports the transition to regenerative agriculture by implementing IALM practices on 4,170 hectares in Romania. Project activities include reduced tillage, cover cropping, crop residue retention, optimized fertilization rates, and improved water management. The project plans to expand to over 11 million hectares across an additional four European countries.
The project is located in an area rich with Chernozem soils (black soils), which gives the project a high carbon sequestration potential. Black soils are particularly fertile soils that can have an important role in the production of cereals, tuber crops, oilseed, pastures, and forage systems. These soils also have a high capacity to store carbon in the soil, making their protection important for climate mitigation. In many regions, black soils are at risk due to land use changes and unsustainable management practices (e.g., excessive use of agrochemicals) causing them to lose biomass and stored carbon.
In the fight against climate change, it is important to demonstrate how the conservation of this precious natural resource can catalyze new finance.