Thumbnail Image

Agrifood systems in the voluntary carbon market: Status and prospects

Year of publication 2025

Place of publication Rome, Italy ;

Pages 212 p.

Author Wollenberg, E.; Dittmer, K.M.; Shelton, S.; Tennigkeit, T.; Costa Jr., C.; Bernoux, M.; Agostini, A.;

Publisher FAO ;

Product type Book (series)

ISBN 978-92-5-139863-0

Series title Directions in Investment

Series number No. 14

To cite or share https://doi.org/10.4060/cd5192en

Synopsis (short abstract) This report constitutes the first global assessment of the agrifood sector in the voluntary carbon market (VCM), which is where carbon credits are issued, bought and sold in the private sector. The purpose is to better understand the status of the agrifood sector in the VCM, identify impacts and opportunities for scaling up, as well as trends and innovations for agrifood that can inform emerging national and international carbon market policy and programs. The agrifood sector has great global potential to remove carbon from the atmosphere, reduce emissions of greenhouse gases (GHG), and generate Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) co-benefits. However, the up-front investment needed and the lack of incentives to change and maintain farming practices hold back adoption and upscaling. The VCM provides a source of additional private funding by unlocking finance flows from companies that purchase agrifood carbon credits as offsets to their corporate emissions or for positive contribution claims.

The following complementary information is available:

Last updated 07/07/2025, see  corrigendum.

Cite this content as:

Wollenberg, E., Dittmer, K. M., Shelton, S., Tennigkeit, T., Costa Jr., C., Bernoux, M. & Agostini, A. 2025. Agrifood systems in the voluntary carbon market: status and prospects. Directions in Investment, No. 14 Rome, FAO.

https://doi.org/10.4060/cd5192en

Language English

Also available in:
No results found.

Related items

Showing items related by metadata.

  • Thumbnail Image
    Brochure, flyer, fact-sheet
    Harnessing SDG-based Agrifood System Transformation through the Empowerment of the Next-Generation of Agrifood Leadership in Africa
    Generating transformational changes in people, processes and markets across Africa
    2024
    Also available in:
    No results found.
    HASTEN: Harnessing SDG-based Agrifood System Transformation through the Empowerment of the Next-Generation of Agrifood Leadership in Africa, aims to generate transformational changes in people, processes and markets by strengthening capacities for sustainable agrifood systems transformation across Africa, through the development of new skills to cope with complex, multilevel, multi-sectoral and multistakeholder governance, SDG integration and cross-cutting themes such as inclusion, gender, youth and environmental sustainability. The project is co-led by the FAO Office of Sustainable Development Goals (OSG), FAO Regional Office for Africa (RAF), Subregional Office for Eastern Africa (SFE) and the Subregional Office for West Africa (SFW), and will be implemented in close collaboration with FAO Country Offices in Lesotho, Rwanda and Sierra Leone.
  • Thumbnail Image
    Book (stand-alone)
    Transformation to low carbon agrifood value chains in Egypt
    Lessons from the Sustainable Agriculture Investments and Livelihoods project
    2024
    Also available in:
    No results found.
    This study presents opportunities for transformation to low carbon agrifood value chains through scaling up successful climate-smart agriculture (CSA) practices. The study draws upon data from 173 Farmer Field Schools (FFS) conducted by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) as part of the IFAD-funded ‘Sustainable Agriculture Investments and Livelihoods’ (SAIL) Project, implemented by the Ministry of Agriculture and Land Reclamation (MoALR) in Egypt.The study assesses the potential for increasing farmers’ incomes, decreasing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, and improving water-use efficiency (WUE) following the implementation of CSA interventions. It also analyses sustainable value chain production models for selected crops, with the goal of establishing climate-smart value chains that are economically feasible and present financial investment opportunities for small investors.
  • Thumbnail Image
    Booklet
    Greenhouse gas emissions from agrifood systems
    Global, regional and country trends, 2000–2020
    2022
    Also available in:
    No results found.
    Agrifood systems account for one-third of total anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions. They are generated in various ways: within the farm gate, through crop and livestock production; through land-use change; and in pre- and post-production processes, including food manufacturing, retail, household consumption and food disposal. According to the latest data, global agrifood systems emissions reached 16 billion tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent (Gt CO2eq) in 2020, an increase of 9 percent since 2000.
Show more

Users also downloaded

Showing related downloaded files

No results found.