International Biochar Conference Uses False Claims to Promote Dangerous Technology in the name of Climate Change Mitigation

Source: Global Forest Coalition
Published Monday, 8 September, 2008 - 12:39

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Campaigners today warn that an international conference on biochar, which will be held in Newcastle, UK from 8 to 10 September, will be misleading governments and the public with claims that biochar - a by-product of second generation agrofuel production - can curb climate change and improve soil fertility.

The International Biochar Initiative (IBI), which is organising the conference, promotes the idea that disastrous climate change can be prevented of we use enormous amounts of biomass for bioenergy, obtain
charcoal as a byproduct and use that charcoal as a fertilizer. They claim this is a "carbon negative" process, and that the charcoal improves soil fertility and carbon sequestration. Unfortunately, their claims are
unfounded and they fail to account for the fact that vast areas of land would have to be turned over to monoculture plantations to produce enough biomass. [1]
 
>From New Zealand, Sandy Gauntlett with the Pacific Indigenous Peoples Environmental Coalition and Global Forest Coalition warns: "Biochar proponents are speaking about enormous amounts of biomass, which will require hundreds of millions of hectares of land being converted worldwide, as well as removing large amounts of agricultural residues and forest produce which are essential for maintaining healthy soils and biodiversity.  In the name of 'climate change' mitigation they want to greatly speed up agrofuel expansion, which is already a leading driver of deforestation, other ecosystem destruction and forced removal of indigenous peoples.  This will accelerate global warming. [2]  To suggest that any massive new demand for biomass plantations will help stem climate change is a very dangerous false solution".

Almuth Ernsting of Biofuelwatch adds: "The IBI board members are well aware that science does not back their claims.  We were advised by the chair of the board, Professor Lehmann, that there are no long-term experiments to suggest that biochar actually sequesters any carbon in the ground or that it makes soil more fertile.[3] Yet this does not stop him and other board members from supporting unsubstantiated claims and calling for carbon credits for biochar."

Biochar proponents also claim that their technology will help rural communities by raising soil fertility and by giving farmers a new income source.  However, companies investing in this technology are already taking out patents on biochar, and one of the firms represented at the conference, BEST Energies, proclaims on their website "We are well positioned to win the current land grab in next-generation fuels" [4], blatantly disregarding the human rights abuses that are occurring as a result of global expanded demand for biomass.

Dr. Rachel Smolker from Global Justice Ecology Project warns that this is yet another scheme for profiteering off of the crisis of climate change. The only ones who will benefit will be the plantation, forestry and bioenergy companies, while people are further displaced from their traditional lands. Amongst the first companies to have participated in biochar research are three Indonesian pulp and paper companies notorious for their destruction of rain forests and for illegally appropriating land.  One of them is implicated in 31 killings since 1998." [5]

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Biochar - confounding knots with the net

Thu, 1970-01-01 01:00

May Waddington, MW Projetos Socioambientais Ltda
Biochar is definitedly worth cheking out. Although I can follow some of the arguments in this story, and was educated on important facts such as companies trying to patent, land grabbing and the such, I believe there is some unwise over reaction going on here. Biochar may become a very useful agroecological practice. Biochar is not necessarily connected to agrofuels and this tehnology may very well be appropriated by small farmers, substituting slash and burn techniques. The greatest merit in the story was to reveal how the new network around the new proposition may be sequestered by corporate and private interests. Thank you. But the net is not to be confounded with these specific knots. There are other people involved, such as soil scientists, farmers, anthropoogists, activists, etc. However, I suggest that the Coalition tries not to throw away the baby with the bathing water, because the technology itself may be a very interesting alternative solution to slash and burn farming, therefore contributing to save a fair amount of forest from being burned by people whose livelihood depends directly on it. Worth checking it out.

Terra preta, Biochar, Agrichar, Charcoal Global Warming

Thu, 1970-01-01 01:00

Michael Angel, nil, none
"The International Biochar Initiative (IBI), which is organising the conference, promotes the idea that disastrous climate change can be prevented of we use enormous amounts of biomass for bioenergy, obtain charcoal as a byproduct and use that charcoal as a fertilizer." No one is making these claims. (citation please?) If they are they are miss-informed. I have never seen anyone suggest charcoal is a fertiliser or that it will solve Global Green House Warming. I have seen people claim that planting lots of trees and giving their cause, company,Green-Party,web click, sponsor, website, airline, etc etc money to plant trees on my behalf will solve the problem. In fact the science of trees grown in temperate areas sequestering carbon for 50-100 years is not as yet totally conclusive. The science of adding charcoal to the soil to sequester carbon for millennia is conclusive. There are vast amounts of municipal, agricultural, industrial, household and other wastes that can be turned into charcoal and produce free energy as well- far before before we cut down the first tree. If we get that far it will be a miracle and hopefully by then we will all be painting our homes with photosynthesising-solar-energy-producing-paint and have vast Algae farms producing bio-oil, and biomass [B]Vertically [/B]so as not to use valuable food-producing or tree-producing land. The BEST Energies Australian pilot plant can handle paper mill waste with up to 70% water!!!! At that level you would be unlikely to get any free electricity maybe a little bio-oil if you were lucky.. A far better use of waste than at that present where it is put in methane producing, increasingly scarce and environmentally sensitive(polluting groundwater etc) landfill sites. Terra preta (Biochar) farming and gardening techniques will help slow global warming. (And TP is more than just charcoal) It won't stop it. Not unless it was adopted world wide on an unprecedented scale. I think that is unlikely as the number of farmers using it so far I can count with my fingers. [QUOTE]unfounded and they fail to account for the fact that vast areas of land would have to be turned over to monoculture plantations to produce enough biomass.[/QUOTE] Yes,you would have to grow huge plantations of biomass specifically for charcoal production to STOP global warming.(if at all possible) Remember however that you are also getting up to 400% better food production, maybe saving water, certainly saving fertiliser and the polluting effects of fertiliser run-off into creeks and rivers. The rest of the article is a rave based on the same unfounded assumption(s) Clever to find BEST's website though, I never have.

Terra preta, Biochar, Agrichar, Charcoal Global Warming

Thu, 1970-01-01 01:00

Michael Angel, nil, none
"The International Biochar Initiative (IBI), which is organising the conference, promotes the idea that disastrous climate change can be prevented of we use enormous amounts of biomass for bioenergy, obtain charcoal as a byproduct and use that charcoal as a fertilizer." No one is making these claims. (citation please?) If they are they are miss-informed. I have never seen anyone suggest charcoal is a fertiliser or that it will solve Global Green House Warming. I have seen people claim that planting lots of trees and giving their cause, company,Green-Party,web click, sponsor, website, airline, etc etc money to plant trees on my behalf will solve the problem. In fact the science of trees grown in temperate areas sequestering carbon for 50-100 years is not as yet totally conclusive. The science of adding charcoal to the soil to sequester carbon for millennia is conclusive. There are vast amounts of municipal, agricultural, industrial, household and other wastes that can be turned into charcoal and produce free energy as well- far before before we cut down the first tree. If we get that far it will be a miracle and hopefully by then we will all be painting our homes with photosynthesising-solar-energy-producing-paint and have vast Algae farms producing bio-oil, and biomass [B]Vertically [/B]so as not to use valuable food-producing or tree-producing land. The BEST Energies Australian pilot plant can handle paper mill waste with up to 70% water!!!! At that level you would be unlikely to get any free electricity maybe a little bio-oil if you were lucky.. A far better use of waste than at that present where it is put in methane producing, increasingly scarce and environmentally sensitive(polluting groundwater etc) landfill sites. Terra preta (Biochar) farming and gardening techniques will help slow global warming. (And TP is more than just charcoal) It won't stop it. Not unless it was adopted world wide on an unprecedented scale. I think that is unlikely as the number of farmers using it so far I can count with my fingers. [QUOTE]unfounded and they fail to account for the fact that vast areas of land would have to be turned over to monoculture plantations to produce enough biomass.[/QUOTE] Yes,you would have to grow huge plantations of biomass specifically for charcoal production to STOP global warming.(if at all possible) Remember however that you are also getting up to 400% better food production, maybe saving water, certainly saving fertiliser and the polluting effects of fertiliser run-off into creeks and rivers. The rest of the article is a rave based on the same unfounded assumption(s) Clever to find BEST's website though, I never have.

BioChar Just May Save The Planet

Thu, 1970-01-01 01:00

Paul Donovan, Director, Tech IT
Biochar is the only environmentally beneficial means of carbon sequestration available in the world right now. It also has a number of important characteristics that make it essential in re-invigorating the degraded soils of Australia. These include: 1. Nutrient retention & cation exchange capacity 2. Decreasing soil acidity 3. Decreased uptake of soil toxins 4. Improving soil structure 5. Nutrient use efficiency 6. Water-holding capacity increase, and 7. Decreased release of non-CO2 greenhouse gases (CH4, N2O) What people do not understand is that biochar is stable and because it is very porous absorbs water and minerals that beneficial ectomycorrhizal fungi use to transfer nutrients to the plants. Biochar will save Australia's soils and if we want, reverse man made climate change.