{"id":36791,"date":"2025-07-11T08:54:55","date_gmt":"2025-07-11T06:54:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.co2news.sk\/?p=36791"},"modified":"2025-07-11T08:55:26","modified_gmt":"2025-07-11T06:55:26","slug":"trees-to-compensate-for-not-being-burned-in-the-burning-of-fossil-fuels","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.co2news.sk\/en\/2025\/07\/11\/trees-to-compensate-for-not-being-burned-in-the-burning-of-fossil-fuels\/","title":{"rendered":"Trees for compensation \u2013 not for burning fossil fuels"},"content":{"rendered":"

Likewise, the IPCC and several analyses point out that carbon farming<\/strong> cannot permanently offset global emissions; without substantial reductions in fossil fuels, there is a risk of dangerously delaying action and giving false hope to businesses and countries.<\/p>\n

\ud83d\udd0d Why should tree compensation be limited to agriculture?<\/h5>\n
    \n
  1. Agricultural emissions can be mitigated on-site:<\/strong> soil stabilization, reduction of emissions from fertilization, improvement of water and soil quality \u2013 all of which have direct benefits for farmers and regional communities. Such practices does not hide<\/em> concrete industry or energy fields behind the trees.<\/li>\n
  2. Permanent vs. recoverable carbon:<\/strong> Soil and young forests are volatile \u2013 their carbon ceiling can be disrupted by weather fluctuations, disease or logging. In contrast, increasing soil carbon levels through agrohydrological practices is more permanent \u2013 but especially the opposite way to fossil emissions offsets<\/strong>.<\/li>\n
  3. Overall shorter time horizon:<\/strong> offsetting the burning of coal, oil or gas would require planting trees the size of North and Central America (cost ~11 trillion USD!) \u2013 totally unsustainable<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n
    \n
    \u26a0\ufe0f The risks of "carbon farming" - when the proposal harms the land and residents<\/h5>\n

    Popular "carbon farming" practices, such as agroforestry or soil carbon sequestration, bring beautiful in postcards<\/strong>, but they often distort the ecological benefit. The challenge is:<\/p>\n

      \n
    • the replacement of biodiversity with monocultures,<\/li>\n
    • increased risk of soil erosion,<\/li>\n
    • possible "land-grab"<\/strong> \u2013 land grabbing by investors without the ownership rights of indigenous people and farmers,<\/li>\n
    • green lies \u2013 companies "clear their conscience" by purchasing credits without reducing their own emissions during production.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n

      The EU is responding by banning misleading representations of "carbon-neutral products" based solely on offsets.<\/p>\n

      \n
      \u2705 How to do it correctly?<\/h5>\n

      The European Parliament calls for a shift towards sustainable practical methods<\/strong> and soil protection:<\/p>\n

        \n
      • remove pressure on fossil fuel industries,<\/li>\n
      • support agroecological methods (crop rotation, non-sowing, organic fertilization, greenhouse growth),<\/li>\n
      • require that land credits:\n
          \n
        • they were additional<\/strong>,<\/li>\n
        • verifiably monitored,<\/li>\n
        • permanently bound (not just a few years),<\/li>\n
        • did not interfere with food production<\/strong> a multiple land use<\/strong>.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
          \n
          \ud83e\udded What does this mean for Slovakia and Europe?<\/h5>\n
            \n
          • Let's preserve agricultural land<\/strong> \u2013 to feed the world, not carbon markets.<\/li>\n
          • Let's limit tree planting to offsetting our own agricultural emissions<\/strong>, not on a quiet escapade of burning fossil fuels.<\/li>\n
          • Let's support soil charcoal through agroecological measures<\/strong>, not just a quantified offset market.<\/li>\n
          • Let's prepare a transparent system for monitoring and verifying carbon credits<\/strong>to be trustworthy and they did not abuse the land<\/strong>.<\/li>\n
          • Let's avoid "greedwashing"<\/strong> \u2013 corporations must not use trees as an alibi to continue polluting.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n

            Planting trees and soil carbon fixation can be a valuable tool \u2013 but only in a local context and with clear values of permanent soil, biodiversity and climate protection<\/strong>Carbon trading should not be an excuse to continue burning oil, coal or gas. On the contrary, trees should be seen as the last \u2013 not the first \u2013 line of defense for soil and climate protection. Spring<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

             <\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

            Likewise, the IPCC and several analyses warn that carbon farming cannot permanently offset global emissions; without fundamental reductions in fossil fuels, there is a risk of dangerously postponing measures and giving false hope to companies and<\/p>","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-36791","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-znizovanie_co2_cdr_ccs_ccu_dac"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.co2news.sk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36791","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.co2news.sk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.co2news.sk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.co2news.sk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.co2news.sk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=36791"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.co2news.sk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36791\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.co2news.sk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=36791"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.co2news.sk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=36791"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.co2news.sk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=36791"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}