Transcript Cooling the planet with biomass?

Biochar: Climate change
solution or threat?
Biofuelwatch
www.biofuelwatch.org.uk
1st June 2009
Biochar
What is really known about it's
impact on soil carbon
and soil fertility?
What will the new demand for a
global biochar programme mean for
climate and people?
Claims made about biochar
“By driving, you will be saving the planet. And the
more you drive, the more you prevent
catastrophic climate change.”
Biopact (founders of Biochar Fund)
“Biochar could be a solution for:
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soil
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Hunger and Food Insecurity
Deforestation and Biodiversity Loss
Excess Carbon Dioxide in the Atmosphere
Methane and Nitrous Oxide emissions from
Renewable Energy”
replantingtherainforests.org
What is biochar?
Biochar is fine-grained
charcoal which is
applied to soils.
It is derived as a byproduct of pyrolysis
(heating biomass with
little or no oxygen)
BEST Energies pyrolysis plant at
Somersby, New South Wales
Picture: Biochar Fund
What evidence exists on
biochar?
• Comparisons with terra preta – fertile
and carbon rich soils created by
indigenous farmers in Central
Amazonia 500-2,500 years ago.
• Results from laboratory studies and
greenhouse studies, some of which
use sterile soils.
• One single published field study
which looked at biochar impacts on
both soil carbon and soil fertility.
Field studies in agriculture are the equivalent of clinical studies
in medicine.
In medicine, no drug could be released or promoted
without comprehensive clinical studies.
The Congo Basin Forest Fund has awarded funding
to Biochar fund and ADAPEL to replace 'slash and
burn' farmingwith biochar.
Will the biochar keep the soil fertile for longer than
the ash from vegetation burning?
Fertiliser field trial,
www.agri.life.ku.dk
Nobody knows – the only published field study, in
Brazil showed that after two harvests soil to which
only biochar had been added sustained no plants
at all.
Terra preta and biochar - 1
Terra preta is carbon rich and highly
fertile soil created by communities in
Central Amazonia 500-2500 years ago.
It is characterised by
- highly diverse biomass residues
(compost, manure, fish bones, animal
bones, weeds, etc)linked to high
agro-biodiversity;
- organic phosphorous and calcium
additions;
- charcoal additions
Terra preta – Amazonian Dark Earths,
Brazil
www.fao.org/sd/giahs/other_brazil.asp
FAO: The knowledge systems and
culture linked to the Terra Preta
management are unique but have
unfortunately been lost.
Terra preta and biochar 2
Biochar involves taking one element
out of the terra preta system and
ignoring the rest:
- diverse organic residues
- soil formation over a long
time scale
- no agro-chemical use
- adaptation to local soil and
climate conditions
Field installation for biochar trial,
Photo: C. Hyland,
www.css.cornell.edu
Chemical analyses have shown
that soil with modern biochar is not
identical to terra preta
Can we rely on biochar carbon
to stay in the soil?
Laboratory studies show that 1-20% of the
carbon in biochar is 'labile' and will soon
be turned into CO2. The rest is supposed
to be very stable.
BUT
One study shows that if this much charcoal
from wildfires was retained in soils, far
more charcoal would be found in soils and
marine sediments. Nobody knows what
happens to the rest.
What does biochar do to soil
organic carbon
Biochar needs to be
tilled into soil. Tillage causes
the loss of soil organic
carbon.
The central argument for promoting the
burning of biomass to make charcoal to put
into soil is based on totally false assumptions
These assumptions go against all scientific
evidence that shows that organic farming
increases soil carbon, and the carbon
stays in the soil.
In a study which looked at
the fate of biochar in boreal
forest soil suggested
significant losses of soil
organic carbon.
Other research shows that
chrcoal and boost soil
microbes which turn carbon
in the soil into CO2.
“Soils need Humus”, Vandana Shiva April 2009
Potential impacts on Albedo
According to James Hansen the
global warming potential of black
carbon in soot is 500 times that
of carbon dioxide.
Black carbon particlesin biochar are
on average larger than those in soot,
however pictures from a recent trial
show large clouds of charcoal dust.
30% of the biochar was blown away.
Representation of an image for a study
by BlueLeaf Inc, published at
www.dynamotive.com
Dust can travel over large
distances, for example from the
Sahara to the Amazon Basin.
The likely impacts of a largescale biochar programme have
not been assessed.
Where will all the biomass
come from?
Biochar lobbyists like to speak of
'agricultural and forest residues'.
Some also speak of 'degraded and
marginal land'.
Scientific studies show that, to meet
ambitious biochar targets, at least 500
million hectares of plantations will be
needed (1 ½ times the size of India).
The reality of industrial
charcoal production
Plantar's
eucalyptus
plantations for
charcoal as
fuel for pig iron in
Minais Gerais,
Brazil:
Deforestation,
Erosion,Water
Pollution, Evictions
Photos: World Rainforest Movement,
www.wrm.org.uy
Forest 'residues'?
Removal of dead wood and 'residues' for bioenergy in Germany
Photo: Peter Wohlleben
Industrial removal of dead wood and other forest 'residues' causes
- serious damage to soils through compaction and removal of
nutrients: This may be irreversible
- higher risk of drought and flooding, as the soil absorbs less water
- insects, fungi, birds and other species facing extinction.
The myth of “marginal and
degraded lands”
We strongly challenge the myth that
there is plenty of free land, going
spare in Africa.
Farmers, pastoralists and indigenous
peoples use these so-called
'marginal' territories but their
existence and rights are often not
recognised by their own
governments”
African Biodiversity Network
West Kalimantan, Indonesia: A man
sits on land that was once his rubber
garden – classed as 'degraded' and
'unproductive and bulldozed to make
way for an oil palm plantation.
Photo: Marianne Klute, Watch Indonesia!
According to the FAO, marginal
lands provide key subsistence
function to the rural poor and are
often farmed by women.
500 million hectares of biochar
plantations?
Shiselweni plantation, Swaziland
Burnt Western Shores Plantation, South
Africa
Burnt tree plantation,
St Lucia
Photos: Wally Menne
The biochar blueprint:
Unprecedented land conversion
“Biochar can take 6 billion tonnes
of carbon out of the atmosphere
every year”
Tim Flannery, keynote speaker at
the 2008 International Biochar
Initiative conference.
“Land use improvements on the
scale envisaged – on average,
an area the size of France in
warmer regions and of Germany
in temperate zones each year for
25 years – is a daunting
organisational prospect”
www.biopact.com
Peter Read, contributor to IPCC
Assessment Report 4, 2007,
member of the International Biochar
Initiative
Biochar and UNFCCC
The Draft Negotiating Next states:
"Agriculture
134. Parties shall cooperate in R&D of mitigation
technologies for the agriculture sector, recognizing the
necessity for international cooperative action to enhance and
provide incentives for mitigation of GHG emissions from
agriculture, in particular in developing countries.
Consideration should be given to the role of soils in carbon
sequestration, including through the use of biochar and
enhancing carbon sinks in drylands."
If adopted, this is likely to result in CDM credits for biochar.
“We are well positioned to win the
current land-grab in nextgeneration fuels”
Best Energies, a leading company involved
in pyrolysis and the development and patenting
of biochar.- represented on the International
Biochar Initiative Science Advisory Committee
Declaration by 156
organisations urges caution
and opposes inclusion of soils
in carbon trading
'Biochar', a new big threat to people, land, and
ecosystems
Keep 'biochar'; and soils out of carbon trading
Caution urged against proposald for large scale use of
charcoal in soils for climate change mitigation and soil
reclamation