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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: December 10, 2008
IBI Announces Success in Having Biochar Considered as a
Climate Change Mitigation and Adaptation Tool
POZNAN, Poland, December 10, 2008 – The International Biochar Initiative (IBI)
announces that the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD) has
submitted a proposal to include biochar as a mitigation and adaptation technology to be
considered in the post-2012-Copenhagen agenda of the UN Framework Convention on
Climate Change (UNFCCC). A copy of the proposal is posted at the IBI website on the
press information page.
Biochar is a fine-grained, highly porous charcoal that helps soils retain nutrients and
water. The carbon in biochar resists degradation and can sequester carbon in soils for
hundreds to thousands of years.
IBI Executive Director Debbie Reed said, “The UNCCD submission is a great success,
and is paralleled by a lot of very positive discussions and interest in biochar amongst
country delegates as well as observers of the process.”
The UNCCD, a sister convention to the UNFCCC, has identified biochar as a unique
opportunity to address soils as a carbon sink. According to the submission document:
“The world's soils hold more organic carbon than that held by the atmosphere as CO2 and
vegetation, yet the role of the soil in capturing and storing carbon dioxide is often one
missing information layer in taking into consideration the importance of the land in
mitigating climate change.”
UNCCD proposes that biochar must be considered as a vital tool for rehabilitation of
dryland soils: “The fact that many of the drylands soils have been degraded means that
they are currently far from saturated with carbon and their potential to sequester carbon
may be very high … making the consideration of Biochar, as a strategy for enhancing
soils carbon sequestration, imperative.”
UNCCD also cites the ability of biochar to address multiple climate and development
concerns while avoiding the disadvantages of other bioenergy technologies that deplete
soil organic matter (SOM). IBI Executive Director Debbie Reed said, “Pyrolysis systems
that produce biochar can provide many advantages. Biochar restores soil organic carbon
and soil fertility, reduces emissions from agriculture, and can provide clean, renewable
energy. Conventional biomass energy competes with soil building needs for crop residue
feedstocks, but biochar accommodates both uses.”
Reduced deforestation is another biochar advantage cited by the UNCCD in their
submitted proposal for including biochar in carbon trading mechanisms: “The carbon
trade could provide an incentive to cease further deforestation; instead reforestation and
recuperation of degraded land for fuel and food crops would gain magnitude.”
Craig Sams, founder of Green & Black's Organic Chocolate, is in Poznan to help educate
delegates about biochar. Sams believes that the climate and ancillary benefits of biochar
are so great that biochar systems should be eligible for double credits. Sams said,
“Adding the rewards for abandoning carbon emitting practices such as slash and burn
cultivation, deforestation and wood fire cooking, to the rewards for adopting biochar
practices in agriculture, forestry and cooking, ought to qualify for double credits.”
UNCCD proposes to include biochar in the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM), and
to revise the rules to account for biochar as a permanent means of carbon capture.
UNCCD also proposes adjusting the carbon offset rules to allow greater financial flows
to help developing countries increase soil organic matter with biochar.
Biochar has one important additional advantage over other land use carbon sequestration
projects – carbon sequestration through biochar is easy to quantify. It is also relatively
permanent. The UNCCD says: “Potential drawbacks such as difficulty in estimating
greenhouse gas removals and emissions resulting from land use, land use change and
forestry (LULUCF), or destruction of sinks through forest fire or disease do not apply to
biochar soil amendments.”
Overall, the potential magnitude of biochar as a climate mitigation tool is great. IBI
Board Chair Dr. Johannes Lehmann said, "We are pleased that the UNCCD has
recognized the potential of biochar. Results from IBI's preliminary model to estimate the
potential of biochar carbon sequestration show that biochar production from agriculture
and forestry residues can potentially sequester one gigaton of carbon in the world's soils
annually by 2040. Using the biochar energy co-product to displace fossil fuel energy can
approximately double the carbon impact of biochar alone."
IBI’s objective for the remainder of the UN meeting at Poznan is to interest more
countries in proposing biochar for consideration as a mitigation and adaptation
technology in the post-2012 Copenhagen process of the UNFCCC.
About IBI
The International Biochar Initiative (IBI) is a registered non-profit organization that
serves as an international platform for the exchange of information and activities in
support of biochar research, development, demonstration and commercialization. IBI
participants comprise a consortium of researchers, commercial entities, policy makers,
development agents, farmers and gardeners and others committed to supporting
sustainable biochar production and utilization systems that remove carbon from the
atmosphere and enhance the earth’s soils. For more information on biochar, see:
http://www.biochar-international.org/ibimaterialsforpress.html.
For further information, please contact:
Debbie Reed, Executive Director and Policy Director, International Biochar Initiative
Phone: 202-701-4298
email: [email protected]
Johannes Lehmann, Chairman of the Board, International Biochar Initiative
Phone: 607-254-1236
email: [email protected]
Thayer Tomlinson, Communications Director, International Biochar Initiative
Phone: 914-693-0496
email: [email protected]
To contact the UNCCD:
UNCCD Communications Officer
Awareness Raising, Communications and Education Unit
Marcos Montoiro-Allue
[email protected]
Phone 49-228-815-2806
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