Europe’s carbon-farming future slowly takes shape

Comment

Afforestation is Ireland's best route to carbon-neutral land use. 

The European Commission’s recent announcements on the carbon removal role of agriculture and forestry open up a new vista for rural Europe.

Much maligned for its belching cows and environmental damage, rural Europe can’t be blamed for worrying about its future in a world of climate action, but the Commission made it clear it sees the sector as the only one which can be a net carbon sink, by sequestering carbon from the atmosphere and storing it in soils, biomass and harvested wood products.