This is a Submission by the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification 4th Session of the Ad Hoc Working Group on Long-term Cooperative Action under the Convention (AWG-LCA 4), Poznan, 1-10 December 2008
Submission containing ideas and proposals on Paragraph 1 of the Bali Action Plan: Use of biochar (charcoal) to replenish soil carbon pools, restore soil fertility and sequester CO
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.
Extraordinary demands are being placed on agricultural systems to produce food, fiber and energy and yet the inevitable changes in the flow of carbon into or out of soils have significant effect on a global scale. Biomass burning and the removal of crop residues reduce carbon in soil and vegetation, which has implications for soil fertility and the global carbon cycle.
The land has an unparalleled capacity to hold carbon and to act as a sink for green house gases making it imperative to focus on activities that enhances rehabilitation, protection and sustainable management of degraded lands. Conventional means to increase soil carbon stocks depend on climate, soil type and site specific management. Over the years, most efforts to manage greenhouse gases have involved planting trees, since the amount of carbon that can be sequestered in this way is substantial. However, the drawback of conventional carbon enrichment is that this carbon-sink option is of limited duration. The associated humus enrichment follows a saturation curve, approaching a new equilibrium level after some 50 to 100 years. The new carbon level drops rapidly again as soon as the required careful management is no longer
sustained. There exist opportunities to include sustainable land management processes and in particular the
use of biochar into the CDM negotiation process through focused policy actions that include institutional synergy as well as better understanding of the sustainability cost-benefit of Biochar. This process could be undertaken starting in Poznan and towards the Copenhagen agreement.
Pyrolysis (of agricultural residues resulting in charcoal and energy production) with biochar carbon sequestration provides a tool to combine sustainable soil management (carbon sequestration) and renewable energy production. The process of pyrolysis or carbonization is known globally and can be implemented at both small scale (e.g. cooking stove) and large scale levels (e.g. biorefinery). About 50% of the carbon can be captured if biomass is converted to biochar. Charcoal enriched soils like Chernozems and in particular Terra Preta soils are among the world’s most fertile soils and prove that soil organic carbon enrichment beyond the maximum capacity is possible if done with a recalcitrant form of carbon such as biochar. The soil properties determine the different capacities of the land to act as a store for carbon that
has direct implications for capturing greenhouse gases. Biochar offers unique options to address issues emerging from the conflicts and complementarities between cultivating crops for different purposes, such as for energy or for CO2 sequestration or for food and the impacts on food security, land/soil degradation, water, and biodiversity. 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 (Farage et al 2003) making the consideration of Biochar, as a strategy for enhancing soils carbon sequestration, imperative.
Required policy actions
The global carbon trade market must be made accessible to land managers, especially in the tropics where sustaining SOC and soil fertility is most challenging and CO2 emissions due to land use change are highest.
All stakeholders need to engage in the dialogue for the post 2012 climate regime. This approach of soil organic carbon restoration constitutes a significant adaptation tool to climate change, in addition to sequestering carbon. This could be a strong link between the three Rio conventions as it simultaneously addresses climate change, desertification and biodiversity issues.
There is the need to include into the negotiation agenda of UNFCCC practical approaches such as biochar-related mitigation (CDM) and other LCA adaptation initiatives, focusing on increased land productivity, which simultaneously takes into account the issue of climate change, desertification and biodiversity issues.
According to the IPCC biochar management would be a valid C sink in the current and post 2012 LULUCF guidelines. However, the following policy action is urgently required:
1. Raising awareness on the role of the land on mitigation and adaptation to climate change and in particular the importance of Biochar in enhancing the sequestration of carbon in the soils.
2. Inclusion of biochar in the CDM mechanism along with currently already included afforestation and reforestation (A/R).
3. Revision of the additionality rules in order to take into account the fact that biochar is a permanent means of carbon capture that has more value than the potentially reversible (A/R).
4. In view of item 3 above, increase the level of CERs that an annex I Party can use towards
meeting the Kyoto Protocol targets from the current 1% to a higher percentage. This would result in large financial flows for both mitigation and adaptation to developing countries where use of this technique would result in the highest returns, due to the high losses of SOC.
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