Vilification of carbon offsets as a “licence to pollute” threatens to stymie growth in soil carbon capture just as it starts to take off and could hobble agricultural innovation more broadly, AgriProve boss Matthew Warnken warns.

He says the cost curve of soil carbon capture, which uses soil to absorb and store carbon by adding microbes, biochar, or accelerating the breakdown of rocks, is poised to decline dramatically over the next decade, following a similar trajectory to solar and lithium batteries.