A key vote on carbon farming legislation will take place on Wednesday 30 August in the European Parliament's agriculture committee.

The current proposals would see a framework put in place for the certification of on-farm carbon removals and establish a carbon trading system.

Colm Markey MEP, who has been responsible for the proposed legislation, said that it provides a key opportunity to bring new money into agriculture and reduce carbon in the atmosphere.

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"This legislation is a potential source of new income for farmers, particularly those farming peatlands.

"Farmers would own this space, it would be farmer-led and by choice.

"It gives the power to the farmer and rewards them for any carbon that they lock in," Colm Markey MEP told the Irish Farmers Journal.

Rewetting alternative

Carbon farming is a better approach to managing carbon on peatlands compared with the proposals in the nature restoration law, Markey added.

"It has nothing to do with rewetting, it's about raising the water table slightly. But this has to be done without negatively impacting the neighbouring farmer," he said.

The number one priority of this legislation, according to Markey, would be to decarbonise the agricultural sector. However, by allowing the carbon to be traded outside of the sector, farmers would get a fairer price as the market would be truer.

"I've spoken with Michael O'Leary about this, he'd be more than happy to buy our [farmers'] carbon to offset his emissions," he said.

Markey said that as part of the legislation, he insisted that it's only active farmers who could avail of this money.

They would have to be a qualified landowner, in receipt of a CAP payment and live in close proximity to the land in order to maintain it effectively, he said.