Nature’s frontline: farmers and the rise of soil carbon in corporate climate and nature strategies
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2025 marked a turning point for corporate climate and nature strategy
Extreme weather sharpened physical risk across global supply chains, while political pushback challenged traditional ESG narratives. As companies reassessed what “credible action” truly requires, one reality became clear: accounting alone is no longer enough to satisfy stakeholder expectations, demonstrate credible climate progress or manage the growing operational and supply chain risks tied to ecosystem stability.
With the natural systems underpinning the economy – and all life – under strain, the need for system-level solutions has never been greater. For years, corporate climate action has centred on emissions accounting – essential for reporting, but limited in its ability to drive real-world change. This gap has increasingly pushed companies to look beyond pure accounting toward market-based solutions that deliver measurable, verifiable impact. Engineered removals like DAC have attracted outsized attention in carbon markets – partly because of the allure of novelty and the promise of future breakthroughs. But while essential in the long-term climate portfolio, they remain constrained today by high cost, energy intensity, and limited scalability. That reality is elevating the role of nature-based solutions, which can deliver verified impact now, within the decade that matters.
Nature-Based Solutions (NBS) have emerged as a crucial complement in recent years, operating where technology cannot: by restoring and strengthening natural systems, they deliver climate mitigation now while simultaneously building resilience across land and water. Healthy ecosystems also unlock material co-benefits – from biodiversity gains to more resilient agricultural landscapes. While debates about permanence often dominate headlines, companies are increasingly recognising that the most material climate value lies in solutions that deliver real, near-term system impact – strengthening soils, water systems, and community resilience. Corporates are increasingly recognising that NBS offer a rare combination of climate, nature, and community benefits – outcomes that engineered technologies cannot deliver.
But within NBS, soil carbon stands out for scalability, cost-efficiency and readiness. Soils store an estimated 2,822 gigatons of carbon in their top metre – roughly 45% more than previously understood – making them the largest terrestrial carbon reservoir [1]. Against this backdrop, soil carbon is experiencing a breakout moment. Fundamentally rooted in farmer participation, soil carbon initiatives are increasingly prioritised by corporate buyers seeking impact that extends beyond carbon emissions alone – delivering removals, nature outcomes, and broader resilience benefits in a single investment. These outcomes are enabled by improvements in soil management and on-farm practices that rebuild soil organic carbon stocks.
Speed is also a major advantage. Unlike afforestation, which can take close to a decade to generate measurable carbon outcomes, regenerative practices such as reduced tillage and crop rotation can be adopted within a single growing season. Combined with more rigorous emerging standards and rapidly maturing digital measurement, reporting, and verification (MRV) systems, soil carbon can be deployed at scale immediately – making it one of the few solutions capable of delivering verified climate impact within the critical 2030 window.
This growing focus on real-world impact is already reshaping the voluntary carbon market. Buyers are under increasing pressure to justify not only how many credits they purchase, but the credibility behind them. As a result, procurement decisions are shifting decisively away from low-cost, low-credibility offsets toward high-integrity removals that can withstand scrutiny and support long-term climate claims.
At the centre of this shift is a tightening of quality expectations, driven both by more rigorous standards and methodologies and by a sharp rise in expectations for MRV. Together, these forces are accelerating buyers’ move toward projects grounded in robust data, traceability, and defensible evidence of climate impact.
Soil carbon is one of the categories most transformed by this shift. The recent alignment of Verra’s Agricultural Land Management Methodology with the ICVCM’s Core Carbon Principles now anchors agricultural soil carbon within the highest tier of recognised integrity frameworks. In parallel, advances in digital MRV – combining satellite imagery, field-level data, and AI-enabled modeling – are improving traceability, measurability and consistency, addressing historical concerns around durability and leakage.
Crucially, soil carbon sits at the intersection of high integrity and relative affordability: while prices vary by project, soil carbon credits typically trade in the $40-60 per ton, compared with $250-500 for engineered removals like DAC [2]. For buyers seeking credible impact at scale within the next five years, this combination of integrity, measurability, and cost-effectiveness makes soil carbon one of the most practical options in today’s voluntary carbon market.
As demand consolidates around high-integrity supply, the central question is no longer whether soil carbon is viable, but how quickly and reliably it can scale. Increasingly, the constraints lie not in standards or verification frameworks, but in the economics and operational realities of implementation on the ground – and the support farmers need to transition.
Soil carbon credits are generated through the shift to regenerative agriculture, encompassing practices such as reduced tillage, diversified crop rotations and cover cropping. This transition is a complex and high-risk process, but it plays a critical role in increasing soil organic carbon sequestration.
The long-term performance case for regenerative agriculture is well documented, with clear evidence that it strengthens soil structure, improves water retention, reduces dependence on synthetic inputs, boosts nutrient efficiency, and increases crop resilience to adverse weather. These practices directly contribute to higher soil carbon levels, which can be captured as carbon credits. Over time, these improvements can translate into meaningfully higher farm profitability – in some cases by as much as 120% compared to conventional practices [3].
However, these benefits accrue gradually and depend on skilled, data-informed implementation. In practice, the transition period is economically and operationally demanding. During the first three-to-five years, farmers face heightened yield variability, increased management complexity, and the need for more precise, data-driven decision making. Many farmers begin the transition with limited access to practical knowledge, guidance, or peer support, relying heavily on trial-and-error in the early stages of adopting regenerative practices [4].
At the same time, many farmers operate on thin margins and short planning horizons, making it difficult to absorb risk or invest in new equipment. With a potential loss of $15-$45+ per acre annually in the initial years – alongside initial capital outlay for specialised machinery – the financial burden can quickly become prohibitive without support [5].
The human dimension is often overlooked in corporate climate discussions. Shifting away from long-established practices can carry significant personal and emotional weight, as farmers adapt systems built over generations while managing weather uncertainty, financial pressure, and cultural expectations around “how farming is done” [4].
Without targeted financial, educational, and community support, most farmers simply cannot make this transition – even when the long-term benefits are clear. This is precisely why additionality remains robust in soil carbon projects: carbon finance helps farmers overcome the high-risk early years and adopt practices they would not otherwise be able to implement.
As soil carbon matures from pilot activity into a portfolio-grade climate solution, its adoption is increasingly shaped by sector-specific strategic priorities – from supply chain resilience, compliance, capital allocation, and reputation.
Agriculture accounts for 26% of global greenhouse gas emissions, of which an estimated 5-10% is linked to soil degradation – making soil health a direct climate and supply chain exposure for consumer goods companies. With 65-90% of emissions sitting in Scope 3, much of it in agricultural supply chains, food and beverage companies face both significant risk and a unique opportunity for impact [6].
Soil carbon insetting is emerging as a practical lever for these companies. By supporting regenerative practices among their sourcing farmers, they can generate verified carbon outcomes directly linked to their raw materials, rather than relying solely on external offsets. Large food companies have already announced multi-year, billion-dollar commitments to regenerative agriculture – including Nestlé’s $1.5 billion investment in regenerative agriculture, targeting more than 500,000 farmers. In this context, soil carbon insetting is emerging as a practical mechanism to turn these commitments into verified, financeable outcomes – directly linking targets with supply security, farmer livelihoods, and improved soil and nutrition outcomes [7].
As Emma Keller, Head of Sustainability UK at Nestlé, notes, “nature-based solutions like building soil carbon remind us that nature is not a constraint to the food system, but its foundation. In the agri-food sector, a sector that is wholly dependent on a balanced climate and stable ecosystem to provide high quality ingredients, we have a unique responsibility – and opportunity – not only to protect what remains, but to actively regenerate the soils and ecosystems that underpin our long-term resilience. Healthy soils are one of our most powerful natural climate solutions and we must transition towards a more regenerative agricultural food system for both people and planet”.
So what are industry leaders doing in practice? Starting with Ferrero, Mario Abreu, Head of CSR, told us that, “Ferrero relies on several key ingredients – such as hazelnuts, cocoa, and palm oil – for which we achieved very high levels of traceability and certification against recognised sustainability standards. In recent years, we have launched pilot projects to advance regenerative agriculture integrating nature‑based solutions which are now embedded in project key performance indicators. In Ghana, for instance, we have partnered with multiple stakeholders to introduce farm‑planning tools and climate‑smart agroforestry, helping prevent deforestation and providing financial incentives for tree-planting."
Continuing the topic of cocoa in the agrifood industry, Chris Oskam, Head of Sustainability at Tony’s Chocolonely, mentioned that, ”Regenerative agriculture is essential in cocoa: it restores soil health and biodiversity while directly addressing one of the sector’s biggest challenges: deforestation. As one of the three systemic issues in cocoa (alongside poverty and child labour), deforestation requires long‑term, farm‑level transformation. Through the relaunch of our productivity program within Tony’s Open Chain, we work with our Mission Allies to invest in agroforestry, Good Agricultural Practices, and multi‑year farm renovation. Together, we support farmers and cooperatives to transition to regenerative systems over a five‑year period, while monitoring key indicators to ensure real, measurable impact for people and nature.”
Turning to the consumer goods sector, Gregg Meyer, Chief Sustainability Officer at Steve Madden, noted how “Over the last years, we’ve been expanding our focus on nature-based solutions through projects ranging from olive grove reclamation in Tuscany to pocket forest planting in Mexico City. As we evaluate our broader carbon credit strategy, we increasingly see the long-term value not simply in the credits themselves, but in the underlying projects and ecosystems they help create. Ultimately, corporates investing in rigorously documented climate and SDG-aligned projects can generate real value for both people and the planet. Having these kinds of resilient natural assets connected to a company’s balance sheet will increasingly become a source of long-term corporate value.”
As CORSIA requirements tighten, airlines are under growing pressure to secure high‑integrity removals with near‑term availability. Many are already contracting volumes ahead of compliance timelines, anticipating future scarcity in high‑quality supply. Soil carbon is emerging as a pragmatic component of these diversified portfolios – offering scalable, verifiable removals this decade and complementing engineered solutions that will take longer to mature. For example, Ryanair has joined major buyers in purchasing verified soil carbon credits derived from regenerative agriculture projects, aligning its voluntary climate strategy with high‑integrity nature‑based removals [8]. Some airlines are also exploring soil carbon through insetting, for example through regenerative agriculture in catering or feedstock supply chains, aligning climate impact more directly with their operational footprint.
Large technology companies are among the most active and influential buyers in the voluntary carbon market, shaping expectations around “high integrity” supply. Their climate strategies typically prioritise diversified portfolios, a clear shift toward removals over avoidance, and strong co-benefits and transparency to safeguard reputation. For these buyers, soil carbon offers a rare blend of scalability, integrity, and measurable nature impact. It fills a near-term gap in removal portfolios while engineered technologies scale up, and its digital MRV infrastructure aligns well with the sector’s focus on data credibility and traceability.
Major financial institutions are beginning to treat nature and soil health as material drivers of risk and value, particularly across food, land, and supply chain-exposed sectors and customer segments. Global financial actors including JPMorgan & Chase, UBS AG, and Deutsche Bank are similarly engaging through project finance, pre-funding, and structured capital mechanisms [9].
Rather than engaging only through credit purchases, a growing group of banks and asset managers are integrating soil carbon and wider NBS projects into transition finance, blended capital structures, and nature positive investment strategies. These approaches help clients manage exposure to physical climate and nature risk while giving investors early access to an emerging category of real-asset-backed climate solutions.
We asked Raffaele Barteselli, Head of Sustainability Banco BPM, for his insights from the financial sector and he stated, “this paper makes one thing very clear: soil carbon isn’t just another climate lever - it is becoming the most pragmatic bridge between climate ambition and operational resilience. The real differentiator for companies will not be whether they buy credits, but whether they help farmers overcome the high-risk transition years. Those who move early will secure both supply chain stability and a strategic advantage in the high-integrity carbon removal market. Banks must act to support farmers in operationalising the most effective soil carbon solutions.”
Energy and utilities companies, which manage extensive land footprints across transmission corridors and powerline rights-of-way, are reassessing this traditionally underutilised space as a strategic asset for reducing their environmental footprint through soil carbon sequestration. By integrating regenerative practices into land management, these players can generate soil carbon outcomes while improving water stability, flood and erosion control, and landscape stability. When embedded into infrastructure planning, these interventions improve resilience to climate risks while reducing long term maintenance needs – in many cases extending asset lifespans and improving operational reliability [10].
The next phase of corporate climate action will be defined not by theoretical models or future technologies, but by solutions capable of delivering verified, real-world impact at speed and scale. Soil carbon – backed by farmers, powered by science, and aligned with the integrity reset underway in carbon markets – is emerging as one of the most strategically important climate solutions for 2026.
As companies confront the limits of emissions accounting and the realities of physical risk, soil carbon brings together what few interventions can: high-integrity emissions reductions and removals, measurable climate and nature outcomes, and benefits that strengthen the very systems businesses depend on – from stable food production to water security and rural economic stability.
Its viability, however, depends on farmers – the frontline stewards of land and essential delivery partners who shoulder the greatest economic risk during the transition years. This challenge is especially acute in developing regions, where agri-food systems face an estimated $300 billion annual financing gap and where rapidly degrading soils threaten both livelihoods and sustainability [11]. Without urgent intervention, 90% of global soils could be degraded by 2050, seeing the release of 4.81 gigatons of CO2 into the atmosphere every year and jeopardising food systems [12]. Carbon finance plays a critical role here – helping bridge the transition gap and enabling regenerative practices that would otherwise remain out of reach. When done well, soil carbon programmes deliver a dual dividend: climate mitigation and landscape-level resilience.
As integrity frameworks consolidate and procurement strategies mature, CSOs face a pivotal strategic choice: continue treating soil carbon as an occasional, reactive credit purchase, or integrate it as a strategic climate asset at the centre of their climate-nature portfolios. The companies that move early won’t just strengthen their own resilience and climate performance – they will also help shape the future stability of global food systems and the rural economies that underpin them.
[1] Lee, J. (2025) Soil Is Bigger Carbon Sink Than Previously Thought: Report, Earth.Org, 22 November. Available at: https://earth.org/soil-is-bigger-carbon-sink-than-previously-thought-report/
[2] Chandaria, K., 2025. “Tapping soil's potential: The climate solution corporates overlook”. https://agreena.com/news/tapping-soils-potential/
[3] World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD) and Boston Consulting Group (BCG) (2023) Cultivating farmer prosperity: investing in regenerative agriculture. Available at: https://www.wbcsd.org/resources/cultivating-farmer-prosperity/
[4] Agreena (2026) Case study: Gentle Farming with Thomas Gent. Available at: https://a.storyblok.com/f/269327/x/a058fe0439/case-study-gentle-farming.pdf
[5] Petry, D., et al., 2023. “Cultivating farmer prosperity: Investing in Regenerative Agriculture.” https://regenerativo.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/07/26.Petry_2023.pdf
[6] SustainCERT (2025) Value chain collaboration for decarbonization. Sustain-Cert.com, April. Available at: https://www.sustain-cert.com/news/the-role-of-value-chain-collaboration-for-decarbonization
[7] Nestle, 2025. “Regenerative Agriculture.” https://www.nestle.com/sustainability/nature-environment/regenerative-agriculture?__cf_chl_tk=Pxd07QZfJrKMJwXzaSHfRE_NYaTcYhCJTYIy_3pJVMQ-1766529316-1.0.1.1-Ydy.NMald2v9vPZBbiOiao6QlT4qH97uoVQOccwEibI
[8] Giles, J. (2025) Radisson Hotels and Ryanair are among buyers for huge soil carbon credit release, Trellis.net, 16 September. Available at: https://trellis.net/article/soil-carbon-credit-release-attracts-ryanair-radisson-singapore/?mkt_tok=MjExLU5KWS0xNjUAAAGc--SOSU-GF6LKkD3NiMcRrSzMYga0IOV1vWaMAlQKZ8GdiX2XxLBKeMoOsahlOa7qHlgPrEA7nKhDwxiamDH5-HE_Ew0OQULTA7YkBy2w0uU
[9] Chandaria, K., 2025. “Tapping soil's potential: The climate solution corporates overlook.” https://illuminem.com/illuminemvoices/tapping-soils-potential-the-climate-solution-corporates-overlook
[10] Actis, E., et al., 2025. “A Value-Driven Approach to Nature-Based Infrastructure”. https://web-assets.bcg.com/2c/6d/085fd944455080f00265c4086231/a-value-driven-approach-to-nature-based-infrastructure-mar-2025.pdf
[11] World Economic Forum, 2024. “100 Million Farmers: Breakthrough Models for Financing a Sustainability Transition”. https://www3.weforum.org/docs/WEF_100_Million_Farmers_2024.pdf
[12] Aroura Soil Security Think Tank, IUCN World Commission on Environmental Law (WCEL), & Save
Soil, 2025. Secure Soil, Save Life.” https://consciousplanet.org/en/save-soil/news/secure-soil-save-life
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