Promotion of Green Bussiness for Climate Neutrality: New Proposals for Carbon Farming

1. Introduction

The European Green Deal strategy promotes a competitive and resource-efficient economy. It targets no net greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by 2050, protecting natural resources and citizen health from the effects of environmental hazards (European Commission, 2020). Continued greenhouse gas emissions will cause global warming to reach 1.5°C in the near future. To limit human-caused global warming, it is necessary to restrict total CO2 emissions and achieve net-zero CO2 emissions, along with significant cuts in other greenhouse gases. This includes deep reductions in CO2 and methane and requires carbon dioxide removal for net negative emissions (IPCC, 2023). Carbon removals are required to become the focus after achieving climate neutrality, as negative emissions will help stabilize temperature increases. Solutions from natural ecosystems and industrial carbon capture and storage should be efficiently and sustainably used. Both types of carbon removals must meet strict monitoring, reporting, and verification standards to support EU climate and environmental goals (European Commission, 2021).

The agricultural sector can contribute to reducing GHG emissions via mitigation technologies or better farming practices, creating a carbon sink through soil organic carbon accumulation, sustainable production of biomass for bioeconomy and food security, reducing the use of fossil fuels as phytochemicals and energy, losses, and waste (European Commission, 2019).

Carbon farming is defined by the European Commission (2021) as:

a green business model that rewards land managers for taking up improved land management practices, resulting in the increase of carbon sequestration in living biomass, dead organic matter and soils by enhancing carbon capture and/or reducing the release of carbon to the atmosphere, in respect of ecological principles favourable to biodiversity and the natural capital overall. (p.5)

Carbon farming practices will improve carbon sequestration in soil, such as afforestation and reforestation, agroforestry which combines trees with crops or livestock; techniques like catch crops, cover crops, and conservation tillage that can help protect soil, converting cropland to grassland and restoring peatlands and wetlands, decreasing oxidation of current carbon stock, and aiding carbon sequestration (European Commission, 2021).

There is a gap in scientific research on bibliometric review studies regarding carbon farming, as shown in surveys made on scientific platforms, such as Scopus (Scopus, 2025) and Web of Science (Web of Science, 2025). A bibliometric analysis is done to identify new proposals, such as technical, technological, legislative, or policy instruments, to promote carbon farming practices.

The following section (2) is a carbon farming literature review, followed by the methodology section (3) where a bibliometric analysis is done, followed by a systematic review with objective criteria. Afterwards, there is a discussion section (4). The conclusion section (5) of the study is then presented.

2. Literature Review

Soil Health and Carbon Farming

Soil, as a non-replaceable resource, is a vital part of the natural environment and serves important environmental, social, and economic roles (Blum, 2005).

Soils can be considered healthy when they exhibit good chemical, biological, and physical conditions. It allows them to provide diverse ecosystem services, such as producing food and biomass, filtering water and nutrient recycling, supporting life and biodiversity, storing carbon, providing cultural services, a human activities platform, supplying raw materials, and serving as a heritage stock (European Commission, 2021; European Commission, 2023).

An integrated view of healthy soils includes both the inherent and dynamic properties of soils and the desired level of soil quality needed for soil functions and ecosystem services (Baritz, et al., 2023). FAO (2020) defines soil health as “the ability of the soil to sustain the productivity, diversity, and environmental services of terrestrial ecosystems”.

European Commission Soils Vision is:

“By 2050, all EU soil ecosystems are in healthy condition and are thus more resilient, which will require very decisive changes in this decade. By then, protection, sustainable use, and restoration of soil will have become the norm. As a key solution, healthy soils contribute to addressing our big challenges of achieving climate neutrality and becoming resilient to climate change, developing a clean and circular (bio)economy, reversing biodiversity loss, safeguarding human health, halting desertification, and reversing land degradation.” (European Commission, 2021 a, p.2)

Agriculture, forestry, and other land-use practices are choices that can help adapt to and mitigate climate change. Effective adaptation strategies include agroforestry, social adjustment, diverse farmland and countryside, urban agriculture, and improved cultivars (IPCC, 2023; Kell, 2012). Conservation agriculture improves soil health by enhancing its physical, chemical, and biological properties (Francaviglia et al., 2023).

The Communication on Sustainable Carbon Cycles outlines measures to promote carbon farming as a sustainable business pattern, including the promotion of carbon farming practices under the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) and the standardization of monitoring, reporting, and verification methodologies. (Kyriakarakos et al., 2024; Sharma et al., 2021. Carbon farming increases soil carbon, improves soil quality, and boosts agricultural production (Sharm et al., 2021). The conservation agriculture principles and practices, such as conservation tillage, permanent cover, and crop diversification (Francaviglia et al., 2023), also improve food security and reduce greenhouse gas emissions. (Francaviglia et al.,2023; Sharma, et al., 2021).

SOC and Agricultural Productivity

Soil organic carbon (SOC) concentration, as well as the soil´s quality and dynamics, are crucial for soil functions and ecosystem services. The main components of SOM (soil organic matter) are plant and animal residues, active SOM, and stable SOM. It contains 45–60% SOC and is a major energy source for soil microorganisms. SOC includes decomposed plant and animal materials, microbial biomass, and their outgrowths. Maintaining SOC level above 1,5 – 2,0 % in the root zone supports soil structure, water use, nutrient retention, root processes, and greenhouse gas control. Sustainable SOC management is a key to soil health and can be achieved through conservation agriculture, diverse farming systems, and organic amendments (Lal, 2016).

An evaluation of 61 topsoil and 26 subsoil observations found that soil organic carbon in agroforestry systems is higher than in areas without trees. Agroforestry enhances SOC in temperate zones and improves carbon storage, despite possible SOC losses during planting. Agroforestry can effectively reduce carbon emissions and be eligible for carbon credit certificates (Mayer et al. 2022). Carbon sequestration increases with silvopastoral compared to agroforestry and reduces greenhouse emissions (Sharma et al. 2021).SOC (Soil organic Carbon) sequestration for organic amendments, cover crops, poplar plantations, conservation management, organic management, and combined carbon farming practices was found with median SOC absolute gains varying from 0.32 to 0.96 Mg C/ha/yr at a depth of 0–30 cm (Petersson et al.,2025). Kell (2012) verified that most soil carbon comes from roots rather than from shoots and leaf litter, yet plants with deeper roots could capture more carbon. Farmers can improve productivity and soil carbon by enhancing soil structure and increasing microbe and earthworm populations (Mattila & Vihanto, 2024). SOC isn’t a complete substitute for mineral fertilizer, but increasing SOC with low N inputs may help maintain yields and minimize fertilizer use. The least carbon-rich soils and the least productive have the biggest sequestration potential, which means that marking those soils for land change would have a low opportunity cost. In contrast, the most productive land also sequesters more carbon, having a big opportunity cost for land use change (Pretty et al., 2005).

Francaviglia et al. (2023) embolden Member States to introduce mandatory eco-schemes in their CAP Strategic Plans, which focus on carbon farming practices to increase SOC content and protect soil conditions. SOC accumulation targets for assessment of trade-offs between increasing SOC storage and GHG emissions should be included in CAP Strategic Plans. Farmers need to embrace advisory services to understand carbon farming, face high costs, and be enlightened about yields. (Pretty et al.,2005; Sharma et al.,2021).

SOC and Carbon Credit Market

Farmers to adopt new methods for carbon sink restoration need financial support, the carbon credit markets may help to finance these efforts. However, there are challenges around permanence, verification, additionality, certification cost, and equity (Liu, 2022). Due to significant uncertainty in SOC estimations at farms, lasting monitoring is advised to assess SOC gains from conservation agriculture practices; shortened-term monitoring is also necessary for informed agricultural policy decisions (Francaviglia et al., 2023). To a precise measure of carbon sequestration opportunity cost, it is important to consider externalities when calculating the costs of changing land use or management practices (Pretty et al. 2005).

For credits to represent real reductions in GHG emissions and be tradable, frameworks have been created that outline how to measure, monitor, report, and verify soil carbon sequestration (Kyriakarakos et al., 2024). A public certification system is essential to build trust in CO2 storage technologies and lower monitoring costs. Certification can also boost carbon credit markets in carbon farming and biogenic sources (Wolf, 2022). Carbon farming policies could lead to higher payments for carbon credits that provide additional environmental advantages. Likewise, increases in soil organic matter may bring environmental benefits, justifying government payments to support sustainable agriculture (Pretty et al.,2005). Farmers with carbon credit certificates will determine the impact of carbon farming on agriculture, raising farmers' income while removing and storing atmospheric carbon (Kyriakarakos et al, 2024).

3. Bibliometric Analysis

A bibliometric analysis was conducted using VOSviewer 1. 6. 20 software. This software builds networks of journals, researchers, organisations, and countries based on citation, bibliographic coupling, co-citation, co-occurrence, or co-authorship links (VOS viewer, 2025). VOSviewer Manual (Van Eck et al., 2023) content provides the following information about bibliographic data links analysis:

• Bibliographic coupling link connects two items citing the same documents.
• Co-citation link connects two items cited by the same documents.
• Citation link is a connection where one item cites another.
• Co-authorship link counts publications that two researchers co-authored.
• Co-occurrence link counts publications where two terms/keywords appear together.

The Scopus Collection was chosen as the data source due to its broad and credible scholarly source database status (Scopus, 2025). The search on Scopus Collection database was carried out with the terms” Carbon Farming”, in the “article title, abstract and keywords” query, without filters, so that all records could be analysed. A total of 343 documents were identified and all selected. The dataset was exported in a “Comma-Separated Values file (.csv). Afterwards, the VOSviewer software analysis was applied to the csv data extracted.

3.1. Results

Following the bibliometric analysis using VOSviewer on 343 documents about Carbon Farming research and considering the bibliographic data analysis map of bibliographic coupling on documents (Figure 1), there are 11 clusters being cluster 1 with red colour and includes 65 documents, cluster 2 with dark green colour and contains 50 documents, cluster 3 with dark blue colour and consist of 46 documents, cluster 4 with dry green colour and comprises 44 documents, cluster 5 with purple colour and incorporates 38 documents, cluster 6 with light blue colour and holds 30 documents, cluster 7 with orange colour and covers 19 documents, cluster 8 with old pink colours and contains 4 documents, cluster 9 with pink colour and with 4 documents, cluster 10 with Light pink colour and contains 3 documents and cluster 11 with light green colour and with 2 documents included (Table 1).

The bibliographic map (Figure 1) shows isolated clusters, the old pink (8) and Light pink (10). The clusters 1 (red), 3 (dark Blue), 4 (dry green), 5 (purple), 6 (light blue) are close together (Figure 1-a and Figure1- b). The clusters 11 (light green) (Figure 1-a) and 7 (orange) (Figure 1- a ) are further away from that group of clusters (1, 3,4, 5, 6) but closer to those clusters, than the clusters 8 (old pink) and 10 (light pink) (Figure 1). The clusters 2 (dark green) and 5 (purple) are more related to each other and still closer to the main group of clusters (1, 3,4,5, 6) (Figure 1- b and Figure 1-c).

Figure 1. bibliographic coupling/documents map (Full view).

Figure 1. bibliographic coupling/documents map (Full view).

Figure 1. (a) Results of documents' bibliographic coupling (b) Results of documents´ bibliographic coupling (c) Results of documents´ bibliographic coupling (d) Results of documents´ bibliographic coupling.

Figure 1. (a) Results of documents' bibliographic coupling (b) Results of documents´ bibliographic coupling (c) Results of documents´ bibliographic coupling (d) Results of documents´ bibliographic coupling.

The five most cited documents were by Prommer J., Newton P., Yuen J. Q., Nath A. J., Harman G. E. (Annex Table 4). "PLOS ONE", "Agricultural Systems", "Frontiers in Sustainable Food Systems", "Forest Ecology and Management”, and “Environmental Science and Policy” are the sources with the highest citation numbers for “Carbon Farming” research (Figure 2)

The top five sources with the highest number of documents on Carbon Farming are "Sustainability (Switzerland)”," Rangeland Journal", "Soil and Tillage Research", "Journal of Environmental Management", and "Agronomy" (Table 2).

The countries with more documents published on carbon farming are Australia, the USA, Germany, Italy, and China, and with the greatest connection are Germany, the USA, Australia, Italy, India, and the United Kingdom (Figure 4)

The most common author keywords are “carbon farming”, “carbon sequestration”, “climate change”, “climate change mitigation”, and “Soil Organic carbon” (Figure 5)

The most current terms in carbon farming research are “carbon farming”, “carbon sequestration”, “climate change”, “carbon”, and “Australia” (Figure 6 )

3.2. Systematic Review with Criteria

A systematic review was conducted, selecting the 15 articles with the most citations on carbon farming research (Annex, Table 4). The articles cover various topics related to carbon farming. These topics include the effects of biochar on nitrogen (Prommer et al., 2014), the definition of regenerative agriculture (Newton, 2020), and the role of bamboo as a carbon sink (Nath et al., 2015; Yuen et al., 2017). Other subjects discussed are the development of Enhanced Plant Holobiomes for climate mitigation (Harman et al., 2019; Harman et al., 2021), carbon farming potential, and policies for private land conservation to reduce deforestation in Australia (Evans et al., 2016). The review also notes the adoption of climate-smart practices that blend traditional methods with technology to boost productivity and lower greenhouse gas emissions (Panchasara et al., 2021). Implementing carbon farming practices can be expensive, but soil carbon certificates may offer financial support if standard methods, indicators, and monitoring are established (Paul et al., 2023). Some findings indicate that adding woody litter preserves soil carbon from drought (Fenner & Freeman, 2020) and that controlled traffic farming can prevent soil compaction (Chamen et al., 2015). Management practices have been shown to store carbon only in the top 0-10 cm of soil (Lam et al., 2013). Additionally, agroforestry is noted to enhance soil organic carbon and biodiversity conservation (Mayer et al., 2022; Evans et al., 2015). Lastly, farmers' choices are influenced by their views on climate change and past experiences with carbon farming, highlighting the need for informed policies for practice management selection ( Dumbrell et al., 2016).

4. Discussion and Conclusions

The European Green Deal aims for no net greenhouse gas emissions by 2050 (European Commission, 2020), and the European soil monitoring law targets healthy soils by the same year. This leads to sustainable agricultural management practices that reduce CO2 emissions and increase organic carbon in the soil (European Commission, 2023). Carbon farming as a green business enhances soil carbon sequestration, preserves natural resources, and rewards farmers through the carbon credit market (European Commission,2021). Australia, the USA, Germany, Italy, and China have the most published documents on carbon farming (Figure4). European countries, Germany, Italy, and the United Kingdom publish the most documents, followed by France, Spain, Greece, Switzerland, Finland, and Belgium. There is a concern about this theme in countries from the north and from the south of Europe, but not in Eastern Europe. Outside Europe, countries such as Australia, the USA, China, India, Japan, and Brazil contribute to the publication of carbon farming documents. In Europe, many countries are releasing many documents on carbon farming, but the rest of the world needs to research and publish more on this topic.

Australia has an average publication date in 2017, while Italy and Spain have 2023, France has 2022, and Germany has 2021 (Table A1), which demonstrates that in Europe, the carbon Farming theme became prominent later in scientific publications. Those average publication dates are related to the date of publications of regulations and policies like LULUCF in 2018 (European Commission, 2025 a) and the new Common Agriculture Policy (2023-2027) that supports the goals of the European Green Deal with incentives for eco-farming practices such as organic farming, agro-ecology, carbon farming, and animal welfare (European Commission, 2025). As well as events such as the Paris Agreement in 2015 and the Kyoto Protocol (2013-2020) for climate neutrality (UN, 2025).

The top sources for carbon farming documents are “Sustainability (Switzerland)”, “Rangeland Journal”, "Soil and Tillage Research", "Journal of Environmental Management", and "Agronomy" (Table 2), and shows that articles about carbon farming are published in several journals, ranging from research areas of environment, soils, animal production, agronomy, and policy showing to be a multidisciplinary concept. The five most cited documents were written by Prommer J. in 2014, Newton P. in 2020, Yuen J. Q. in 2017, Nath A. J. in 2015, and Harman G. E. in 2019, showing that after 2014, carbon farming theme became increasingly interesting for scientific research. (Annex Table 4)

The principal common terms (Figure 6) in carbon farming research include “carbon farming,” “carbon sequestration”, “climate change,” and "Australia”. Carbon sequestration and climate change are concepts that are strongly related to carbon farming, important for climate neutrality. Australia was one of the first countries to establish a carbon credit market by the government (Parliament of Australia, 2025), and thus, has many published carbon farming-related documents. From the most common 15 author keywords (Figure 5), it is noticed that there is a lack of terms related to the carbon farming carbon market, farmers' carbon farming adoption, carbon farming economic effects, and the relation of carbon farming with regenerative agriculture, which reveals a gap in scientific research. More studies on the opportunity cost regarding carbon farming practices and land use change should be conducted to determine exact cost calculations, assess the risk of adoption, and see if it is worthwhile to join the carbon credit market.

Policy Proposals

Carbon farming practices could be encouraged through the existence of a Regenerative Agriculture Production EU Regulation, in which policymakers could financially support the introduction of this agroecosystem, so that farmers' transition to this climate mitigation production method would be with minimal risk.

The new Common Agriculture Policy (2023-2027) encourages eco-farming practices. Carbon farming practices could be monitored for soil carbon accumulation, with financial incentives applied for increases in SOC. A standard MRV (monitoring, reporting, verifying) methodology of SOC could be regulated by the European Community, to be used on CAP and on the carbon credit market. Carbon farming is a sustainable agricultural method that preserves natural resources, conserves biodiversity, achieves carbon neutrality, and offers economic compensation for ecosystem services provided by the carbon credits market. Farmers adopting carbon farming practices and the CRCF Regulation (EU/2024/3012) will earn extra income by selling carbon credits to polluting companies that compensate for their GHG emissions.