Carbon For Sale: Legal Issues With Carbon Farming In The United States

Desires to accomplish net-zero carbon emissions are bringing carbon farming opportunities to farmers in the United States.  But carbon markets and carbon agreements raise several important legal issues.

This paper discusses three relevant concerns:  uncertainty over the legal nature of carbon credits, incompatibility between farming practices and additionality and permanence components of carbon credits, and the lack of governance and infrastructure in the carbon market. 

Two critical questions arise:  whether carbon credits are the appropriate mechanism for incentivizing carbon farming and whether governmental involvement is necessary to bring order to the carbon market.

Key words: carbon farming; carbon credits; carbon agreements; climate change; law; policy