2026-10-14T08:55:59Z https://api.figshare.com/v2/oai

oai:figshare.com:article/34031372 2026-09-30T10:38:29Z category_19 category_21 category_39 category_734 category_106 portal_87 item_type_3 month_year_09_2026

Expert preferences for carbon farming contract design: an extended VIKOR-based decision-making Nidhi Raina (25143197) Kato Van Ruymbeke (24695035) Erik Mathijs (2291635) Davide Viaggi (749875) Pharmacology Biotechnology Ecology Biological Sciences not elsewhere classified Science Policy carbon farming multi-criteria decision-making voluntary carbon markets contract design decision-support framework expert preferences <p>The complicated nature of carbon-based payments and their dependence on voluntary carbon market prices call for efficient carbon farming contracts that can ensure sustainable projects. This study treats contract design as a decision-making problem and applies a multi-criteria decision-making tool, VIKOR, to identify optimal solutions through expert opinions. The findings indicate that experts highly prioritize ‘hybrid payments’ and ‘training, advisory, and capacity building’ as key contract attributes. The preferences also vary significantly based on experts’ on-ground experience and professional characteristics, particularly for different incentive mechanisms. Combining the ranking results with literature-based causal relationships, we developed a decision-support framework that links contractual attributes to project performance. In conclusion, the results suggest that effective contracts are best designed with hybrid incentive mechanisms that provide support to the farmers and have robust certification systems, rather than single-mechanism approaches. Such contracts can translate the EU’s climate goals into scalable and credible carbon removal schemes.</p> 2026-09-30T10:38:29Z Dataset Dataset 10.6084/m9.figshare.34031372.v1 https://figshare.com/articles/dataset/Expert_preferences_for_carbon_farming_contract_design_an_extended_VIKOR-based_decision-making/34031372 CC BY 4.0