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Caution is needed when translating the carbon market logic to nature credits

Nature Food volume 6, page 909 (2025) Cite this article

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Both credit types share a basic premise: land users implement practices that result in a measurable and verifiable gain — either long-term carbon sequestration or an increase in biodiversity — above a baseline. Credits are issued for these ‘additional’ outcomes and must ensure permanence. In both cases, the cost of generating a credit includes not only implementation but also long-term maintenance, and ideally, the credit price should reflect that full cost.

Yet, this conceptual symmetry hides critical practical and structural differences that challenge the portability of carbon market logic to nature credits. Five points deserve consideration.

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References

  1. Communication from the Commission to the European Parliament, the Council, the European Economic and Social Committee and the Committee on the Regions: Roadmap Towards Nature Credits (European Commission, 2025); https://go.nature.com/4m0vAul

  2. Wauchope, H. S. et al. Proc. R. Soc. B 291, 20242353 (2024).

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  3. Directive 2003/87/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 13 October 2003 Establishing a System for Greenhouse Gas Emission Allowance Trading Within the Union and Amending Council Directive 96/61/EC (European Union, 2003); https://go.nature.com/42dw9Kh

  4. Regulation (EU) 2024/1991 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 24 June 2024 on Nature Restoration and Amending Regulation (EU) 2022/869 (European Union, 2024); https://go.nature.com/4mQz9Vw

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  1. Earth and Environmental Sciences, KU Leuven, Leuven, Belgium

    Erik Mathijs

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  1. Erik Mathijs
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Correspondence to Erik Mathijs.

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The author is coordinator of the EU Horizon project SoilValues.

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Mathijs, E. Caution is needed when translating the carbon market logic to nature credits. Nat Food 6, 909 (2025). https://doi.org/10.1038/s43016-025-01234-8

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