The Intergenerational Open Geospatial Carbon Registry (OGCR) is building an open, transparent digital platform to track, value, and reward land-based carbon sequestration across Europe and beyond. In partnership with IIASA, the project integrates advanced modelling of soil carbon, biomass, and climate risks to create a scientifically grounded, future-ready carbon registry that supports sustainable land management and climate mitigation.

OGCR will provide:

  • Updateable baseline geospatial layers for soil, biomass, and peat EU-wide,
  • A hybrid modelling framework to assess management impacts under the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) and the EU Carbon Removal Certification Framework (CRCF),
  • A globally scalable open carbon registry for transparent and reliable carbon accounting, supporting EU.

 

Key Features

  • Stakeholder Co-Design: developed transparently through a participatory process with scientific oversight
  • Policy Integration: connects CRCF, CAP, with voluntary and mandatory carbon markets
  • Comprehensive Carbon Accounting: tracks above- and below-ground carbon with independent measurement, monitoring, and verification (MRV)
  • Inclusive Access: engages landholders of all sizes through clear, user-friendly geospatial data
  • Open: fully open-source and released under Creative Commons licenses, ensuring free participation

 

IIASA’s Role and Responsibilities

As a scientific partner, IIASA, through its Agriculture, Forestry, and Ecosystems (AFE) Group, leads the development of the integrated, pan-European modelling framework that advances OGCR’s assessments of soil organic carbon (SOC)-beneficial management practices, and carbon permanence under changing climate conditions.

This work integrates AFE’s established models, including EPIC-IIASA for agricultural and soil processes and G4M for forestry and biomass dynamics, providing a robust scientific foundation for OGCR’s open geospatial carbon registry.

 

IIASA’s Research Focus

  1. Defining scenarios for SOC-enhancing forestry and agricultural systems, reflecting growing demands for biochar, bioenergy, long-lived wood products, and BECCS (Bioenergy with Carbon Capture and Storage).
  2. Identifying SOC degradation risks and quantifying sustainable biomass extraction limits and using G4M (forestry) and EPIC-IIASA (agriculture).
  3. Evaluating future climate-related hazards, such as wildfire, drought, wind, and pest outbreaks, affecting carbon permanence, through FLAM and G4M models.
  4. A value-chain analysis of the sustainable biomass uptake for bioenergy and long-lived wood products, including charcoal for industrial and non-industrial use with optimal placement of industrial facilities.
Funded by the European Union

Funded under Food, Bioeconomy Natural Resources, Agriculture and Environment