Out of the ETS Draft: Irish Presidency Scraps Carbon Farming References

The Irish EU presidency has removed all explicit references to carbon farming and nature-based removals from its first draft compromise text on the revision of the EU Emissions Trading System (ETS), according to Carbon Pulse. For carbon farming developers and the buyers watching them, the deletion is the first concrete signal of where the Council stands on giving land-based removals a role in Europe’s compliance market, weeks before ministers aim to close a General Approach in December.

What the presidency took out of the draft

The compromise text is the presidency’s first attempt to synthesise member state positions on the ETS revision. In it, explicit mentions of carbon farming and of nature-based removals have been cut, a move that drew praise from climate advocates, according to Carbon Pulse.

The cut matters because the proposal on the table goes in the opposite direction. The European Commission’s review plans, published on 17 July 2026, include the addition of carbon removals, particularly for hard-to-abate sectors, and the use of international carbon credits, according to the Government of Ireland. Stripping carbon farming from the compromise text narrows the removals element of that plan at the first stage of Council drafting.

Carbon farming covers practices on agricultural and forest land intended to increase the carbon stored in soils and vegetation, generating credits against verified removals. Whether those credits should ever count inside the ETS is one of the most contested questions in the review.

The review Dublin is steering to December

Ireland holds the Presidency of the Council of the European Union from 1 July to 31 December 2026, according to the Government of Ireland. Minister for Climate, Energy and the Environment Darragh O’Brien will chair discussions on the review at the Environment Council, with the aim of reaching a General Approach at the December Environment Council in Brussels. Official discussions began on 20 July in Brussels.

The broader revision focuses on market stabilisation, amending the decarbonisation trajectory for industry, and broadening the system’s scope to include certain aviation and maritime emissions, according to the Government of Ireland. The ETS has seen emissions in its scope fall by 50% since its inception in 2005.

“Reviewing our decarbonisation and competitiveness framework will be vital to achieve our climate targets and to secure the prosperity of our industries. Changes will be difficult but necessary,” O’Brien said, according to the Government of Ireland. Urgently completing the review is a priority for European leaders, the European Parliament and the Commission under the One Europe, One Market Roadmap.

Removals already sit inside the 2040 framework

The Council has already given removals a formal place in the EU’s climate architecture. A presidency compromise text on the European Climate Law amendment, prepared for the November 2025 Environment Council, set out a binding 2040 target of a 90% reduction in net greenhouse gas emissions compared to 1990 levels, with net defined as emissions after deduction of removals, according to a leaked document seen by Table.Media.

That framing makes the deletion in the ETS text a question of instrument design rather than of principle: the EU plans to count removals toward its headline targets, while leaving open which removal types, if any, gain access to its carbon market.

Implications for buyers and developers

For buyers, the first Council draft offers no route for carbon farming credits into ETS compliance. Demand for land-based removal credits remains a voluntary market story, and procurement planning should not assume a compliance outlet inside the current review cycle unless the references return in later drafts.

For developers of carbon farming and nature-based removal projects, the deletion adds a policy risk factor at an early stage of the legislative process. The Commission’s own plans still name carbon removals for hard-to-abate sectors, so the remaining debate is which categories qualify. The praise for the cut from climate advocates, reported by Carbon Pulse, underlines the integrity pressure any future inclusion would face.

What to watch

Source: CarbonMeld — independent carbon credit market intelligence. Document-based quality scores and assessments across all major registries: carbonmeld.com

The first checkpoint is the December Environment Council, where O’Brien aims to secure a General Approach, according to the Government of Ireland. The second is drafting: whether carbon farming references reappear in subsequent compromise iterations, and how the international credits element of the Commission’s plans survives Council scrutiny. A General Approach in December would set the Council’s position for negotiations with the European Parliament.