D6. Innovative Financial Models to Scale Carbon Forestry | ECFS26

This session from the 3rd European Carbon Farming Summit (ECFS26), held in Padova, Italy from 17–19 March 2026, explores how carbon forestry and carbon farming can scale through innovative business models, investment strategies and market development. Bringing together investors, project developers, certification bodies and financial institutions, the session examines how high-integrity carbon projects can move from pilot initiatives to bankable, large-scale solutions aligned with EU climate and biodiversity goals. 🔹 Session focus The discussion explores how financial models, certification systems and policy frameworks can work together to unlock private capital and scale carbon removals across Europe. 🔹 Key themes Innovative business models for carbon finance, including insetting and landscape approaches Bridging supply and demand for high-quality carbon removal credits Investment challenges and opportunities in the Voluntary Carbon Market (VCM) The role of hybrid public-private finance and market infrastructure Aligning corporate climate action with CRCF, CSRD and SBTi frameworks Financing mechanisms and aggregation models, including insights from the European Investment Bank Real-world implementation of large-scale reforestation and restoration projects Long-term monitoring, data quality and ecosystem recovery tracking Linking ecosystem service certification (e.g. FSC) with ESG reporting and Nature Credits Contributors: Alessandro Leonardi (Etifor | Valuing Nature) Francesco Tomaiuolo (Arpinge) Klaus Kastenhofer (Caritas Vienna) Johannes Tintner-Olifiers (EY denkstatt) Stephen Hart (European Investment Bank) Axelle Ducos (Land Life Company) Ondrej Tarabus (FSC International) The session provides a comprehensive overview of how finance, certification, monitoring and policy can align to support scalable, high-integrity carbon forestry and carbon farming across Europe. The 3rd European Carbon Farming Summit brought together farmers, policymakers, researchers and businesses to advance credible, scalable and impactful carbon farming across Europe. 🔗 Learn more: https://www.carbonfarmingsummit.eu