Agreena’s Verra Registration Proves Soil Carbon Sequestration Can Meet the Highest Scientific Standards
Byline: Staff Writer
Carbon markets have long faced a fundamental challenge: how to quantify and verify nature-based climate solutions with scientific rigor. While forest preservation projects have historically dominated voluntary offsets, they’ve also come under fire for overestimating their impact. Soil carbon sequestration, on the other hand, has remained underutilized, not because of its potential, but because of the complexity around quantifying its impact at scale.
Agreena’s latest milestone changes that. The company’s AgreenaCarbon Project has become the first large-scale agricultural cropland initiative to earn registration under Verra’s Verified Carbon Standard (VCS) VM0042 methodology, a validation that sets a new benchmark for soil-based carbon credits. For the first time, a large-scale regenerative agriculture program has passed the strict measurement, reporting, and verification (MRV) requirements necessary to issue high-integrity carbon credits.
“This registration proves that regenerative agriculture projects can meet the most rigorous MRV requirements,” said Frederik Aagaard, Agreena’s Chief Commercial Officer. “By using top-tier scientific methodologies, we’re giving carbon buyers the assurance that soil-based credits are legitimate, measurable, and verifiable.”
Unlike industrial carbon capture technologies, which extract CO₂ from the air and store it underground, soil carbon sequestration works by enhancing natural processes. Practices like mulching residue, cover cropping, and optimized fertilizer use increase the amount of carbon stored in soil organic matter. The question has never been whether or not soil can store carbon, it’s been whether carbon markets could establish a reliable way to track, quantify, and verify those changes.
Verra’s VM0042 methodology solves that issue with a robust framework that integrates multiple layers of verification. Biogeochemical models such as DayCent and RothC are used to estimate carbon fluxes, drawing from climate, soil composition, and land-use history to establish a reliable baseline. Remote sensing technology and direct soil sampling validate changes on the ground, while independent third-party audits and MRV processes ensure that carbon removals are additional and not the result of practices that would have happened anyway.
With these layers of verification in place, Agreena’s Verra certification effectively moves soil carbon sequestration from theory to a fully operational market asset. This distinction matters, particularly as regulators and investors push for higher integrity in carbon markets.
The voluntary carbon market has struggled with credibility, with accusations that many credits fail to represent genuine emissions reductions. Some companies, wary of reputational risks, have pulled back on purchasing credits altogether. But demand for credible nature-based solutions remains strong, especially from industries where direct emissions reductions are difficult or prohibitively expensive.
“The validation process ensures that buyers are investing in real, measurable climate impact,” said Aagaard. “It’s about shifting the market toward higher integrity, where verified carbon credits serve as legitimate tools for climate action, and murky associations with corporate greenwashing are left behind.”
Beyond market confidence, Agreena’s certification also addresses one of the biggest financial barriers farmers face in transitioning to regenerative agriculture: upfront costs. Shifting to carbon-storing farming techniques requires investment in new equipment, adjusted planting cycles, and, in some cases, short-term yield losses. By providing a scientifically validated pathway for farmers to monetize their soil carbon sequestration efforts, Agreena is turning sustainability into an economic opportunity rather than an operational burden.
With 4.5 million hectares of farmland already enrolled in its program, Agreena’s model is designed to scale. More importantly, it sets a path for the future of both regenerative agriculture and the VCM, one that meets the highest MRV standards and aligns with global regulatory expectations.
Agreena’s first Verra-certified credits are expected to be issued in 2025, but the broader impact of this achievement is already unfolding. With legitimacy secured, soil carbon sequestration may finally move from the margins of voluntary carbon markets to the mainstream.
