Survey of farmers on the acceptance of additional carbon sequestration measures and their integration into the socio-economic framework

With the European Climate Law, the achievement of the EU's climate target formulated in the European Green Deal to reduce emissions in the EU by at least 55% by 2030 becomes a legal obligation. The Fit for 55 package includes a number of proposals to revise and update EU legislation and aims to ensure a coherent and balanced framework for achieving the EU's climate goals. With the presentation of this package, the European Commission proposes a net carbon storage target of 310 Mt CO2 eq in the LULUCF sector for the EU by 2030, and a binding national target of 5,650 kt CO2 eq applies to Austria. In this context, the European Commission proposes to establish a carbon storage certification scheme to provide additional incentives to increase net carbon storage. Within the framework of a study, the potentials for increasing net carbon storage in land use are to be evaluated with a view to achieving the target proposed for Austria. To this end, the willingness of farmers to implement possible additional measures of land management and land use changes with regard to agricultural land will be examined. With the support of the expertise of suitable partners, a practical questionnaire will be developed that asks about the willingness to implement additional measures for additional carbon storage in soil and biomass (compared to the current state) on farms. In addition, a research and presentation of conducive and inhibiting socio-economic framework conditions in Austria for the implementation of measures for carbon storage on agricultural land is carried out.