Download Project Rainbow Bee Eater Press Release

Project Rainbow Bee Eater Press Release
Why ‘Rainbow Bee Eater’?
The Rainbow Bee Eater is a beautiful bird that survives in some of the
harshest environments in Australia. Its habitat overlaps most of the area that
could provide large carbon capture and storage opportunities in Australia.
The photo of this bird exploding from its nest is also a metaphor of the rapidity
with which carbon capture and storage using biochar could make a major
contribution to reducing carbon emissions while at the same time causing the
reversal of environmental, social and economic decline of regional Australia.
PROJECT RAINBOW BEE EATER
PROJECT RAINBOW BEE EATER – CALL FOR FEDERAL GOVERNMENT
SUPPORT FOR BIOCHAR
Project Rainbow Bee Eater, a consortium of farmers, scientists and engineers has
claimed the Federal Government’s White Paper which provides the policy framework
for the Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme has not recognized the potential for
rapid, very large scale and permanent bio-sequestration of inorganic carbon by
excluding biochar.
Biochar is a fine-grained, highly porous charcoal that helps soils retain nutrients and
water. The carbon in biochar resists degradation and sequesters carbon in soils for
hundreds to thousands of years, providing a potentially powerful tool for mitigating
anthropogenic climate change. When the biochar is made from agricultural and
plantation wastes that would otherwise decompose within a few years, emissions of
greenhouse gasses to the atmosphere are avoided and that carbon is permanently
stored in the biochar.
The Rainbow Bee Eater team has been working on biochar for several years. They
are planning to implement a pilot scale operational biochar trial on a 23 thousand
hectare wheat belt farm in Western Australia in 2009.
The consortium welcomed the White Paper but was disappointed that although
biochar was acknowledged, the White Paper claimed, “… the science of biochar
sequestration is not fully developed”.
Professor Syd Shea, a member of the Rainbow Bee Eater team, said ““the science
behind the use of biochar to increase soil productivity and to create a long term, safe
carbon sink is well established.”
“Inorganic carbon, which is the major component of biochars made using modern
charcoal making technologies, would remain in soils for hundreds to thousands of
years.”
“The carbon accounting for biochar is simple and does not require complex soil
sampling. The biochar is weighed before we add it to the soil and the content of the
inorganic carbon is measured using a simple analysis the coal industry does every
day called 'proximate analysis'. Each tonne of inorganic carbon in the biochar locks
up 3.67 tonnes of carbon dioxide”.
Professor Shea said, “The incorporation of charcoal (biochar) to increase soil
productivity was carried out in the Amazon 2000 years ago. Research by many
scientists around the world over the past two decades in a variety of climates and
soils, with biochars made from a variety of feed stocks, has shown that biochar
increases productivity in a large number of plant and tree crops.”
“Trials on the use of bio char to increase wheat productivity in the Western Australian
wheat belt carried out in cooperation with the Western Australian Department of
Agriculture and Food (DAFWA) have shown wheat crop yields in pot and field trials
increasing by between 10 and 20 percent. Larger field trials in 2008, undertaken
under the supervision of Dr. Stephen Davies from DAFWA, which have just been
harvested, also demonstrated that bio char made from mallee eucalypts incorporated
into wheat belt soils at high rates significantly increases wheat biomass compared to
cultivated soil with no biochar.”
PROJECT RAINBOW BEE EATER
The Rainbow Bee Eater team agreed that further operational trials were essential to
further develop the technology required for large-scale conversion of crop and
plantation wastes into biochar and to confirm the economic viability of the process but the science is not in doubt.
Ian Stanley, a Western Australian wheat farmer whose wheat crop this year will
exceed 30,000 tonnes, said “I am confident it will be possible to integrate biochar
production and incorporation into the existing farming systems, in part, because we
will use existing harvesting and seeding systems with minor modifications”.
Peter Burgess, the leader of the Rainbow Bee Eater team, said “we have undertaken
extensive reviews globally of a variety of technologies and processes that have the
capacity to reduce large quantities of GHG emissions. Our modelling indicates that
broad scale incorporation into soils of biochar produced from crop and plantation
residues is very cost effective and is possible at a very large scale. Project Rainbow
Bee Eater is designed to be integrated into existing farming systems, is regionally
based, complements food production and, unlike many other large schemes that are
proposed, could be implemented rapidly.”
Mr. Burgess said “we understand the complexities of the international carbon
accounting system our Government faces but we believe the Rainbow Bee Eater
system is no different in concept or outcome from Carbon Capture & Storage that
was accepted by the White Paper. Biochar will store the carbon in the top few
centimeters of soil, safely, at much lower cost and with other benefits to Australia.”
“If Rainbow Bee Eater receives credits for the carbon locked up in the biochar, we
believe we will reduce Australia’s annual CO2e emissions by at least 20 million
tonnes within a decade using existing waste biomass streams and purpose grown
tree crops. That is nearly 4% of Australia's current emissions. The longer term
potential is much greater. Other by-products of this regionally based project include
regional jobs, renewable energy and amelioration of soil and biodiversity
degradation.
“Biochar made from crop and plantation waste could store carbon permanently in
cleared areas of Australia like the WA wheat belt. It thus has the potential to achieve
a large part of the Carbon Pollution Reduction our Government is targeting for 2020.
“Carbon credits for biochar are needed to unlock this potential.”
CONTACT:
Professor Syd Shea: 0403 309 003
Peter Burgess: 0407 368 231
Ian Stanley: 0428 910 351
PROJECT RAINBOW BEE EATER