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Soil as a Carbon Sink: Policy challenges with regards to soil carbon sequestration

This is part of the Soil as a Carbon Sink 3-part seminar series.

“Globally, soil contains about three times as much organic carbon as plants and twice as much as the atmosphere” [1]

Increasing carbon storage in soil is proposed to be one of the most cost-effective climate measures,
a measure that also has a positive impact on aspects such as biodiversity and soil fertility. The topic
has gained the decision-makers’ interest and sits high on the political agenda in the Nordics.
However, using soil as a carbon sink is a complex matter. Knowledge is developing at a fast pace, but
several questions remain to be answered.

This seminar is part of a series aiming to stimulate knowledge exchange between Nordic actors
interested in soil as a carbon sink. The seminars are initiated and financed by Nordic Forest
Research, Nordic Agri Research and Nordic Council of Ministers’ working group for climate and air.

When: 27th of April, 10.00-11.30 CET
To solve any technical problems, please log in to the seminar no later than 09.50

Where: Online via Zoom
Registered participants will be provided with a link to the seminar on Monday 26th of April
Focus: Carbon sequestration in soil relates to a range of different perspectives and policy areas,
such as biodiversity, production economics, and climate aspects. This complexity creates challenges
in terms of managing trade-offs and setting effective policies for tomorrow’s sustainable soil
management. In this seminar we will discuss these different perspectives, how policymakers can
navigate among potential goal conflicts, what research says about these potential goal conflicts,
what the main challenges are and how we can solve them.

RSVP: 20th of April via this link: simplesignup – soil as a carbon sink

Keynote speakers:

  • EU policy on carbon sequestration in forestry and land use – Christian Holzleitner, Head of unit, Land Use and Finance for Innovation, European Commission
  • Creating an effective transition to climate neutrality – the role of policy – Hanna Mattila, Ministerial Adviser, Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry, Finland
  • Striving to protect and increase soil carbon while balancing competing societal interests: Examples from Norway – Adam O’Toole, Researcher, Norwegian Institute of Bioeconomy Research

Reflections by Martin Hvarregaard Thorsøe, Assistant professor in Human Geography, Aarhus
University. Martin has worked with soil policy and stakeholder involvement in the context of several
international projects, including H2020 RECARE, BONUS Tools2Sea and EJP SOIL.

For questions please contact: Lovisa.Torfgard(a)analysysmason.com

Welcome!
Nordic Forest Research (SNS) and Nordic Agri Research (NKJ)

[1]: https://ec.europa.eu/eip/agriculture/sites/default/files/eip-agri_fg_carbon_storage_in_arable_farming_final_report_2019_en.pdf