Photo by Sophia Wojkowski
The excitement around the biochar is growing as well as the interest in his role in the voluntary carbon market (VCM). Biochar is a carbon -rich form of charred biomass or other organic materials. Its primary climate part is that it is decomposed to carbon dioxide much more slowly and releases as its parent material (also referred to as a feedstock, the original biomass used for the production of the biochar).
It is important that this climate portion depends on the other potential uses of the output of starting materials. If the starting material has an alternative use with a larger climate reduction potential (e.g. bioenergy, in certain contexts), biokale production may not be the best use from the point of view of the reduction. However, if the starting material had been decomposed or landed on landfills, climate capacity via biochar can be the best final use.
If the BioChar production is expanded and attributed to VCM, it is important to ensure the integrity and consistency of the credit process. A new report According to environmental defense funds, 5 different market protocols for biocal carbon analyzes to promote high-quality carbon loans and transparency within the carbon markets.
The popularity of biochar as a climate reduction instrument has increased in recent years due to its very stable nature. If the carbon is applied to the floor in the biochar or mixed in building materials, it can take a hundred years for decades instead of being released into the atmosphere.
In view of this climate paper, protocols for the carbon market were developed to help quantify the climate of their bio bolts so that they can sell carbon loans to compensate for greenhouse gas emissions.
With the emergence of new protocols and protocol updates, it can be difficult to distinguish how they differ from each other. We show where these differences occur and offer suggestions for increased clarity and consistency in all protocols. While current protocols have broad similarities in the approach, differences in combating the carbon booking principles such as leakage, uncertainty, resistance, addition and Baselines can make it difficult to compare projects, to develop and lead to consistent credits and to lead to a confusing, credited landscape.
In view of the fact that carbon loans are used to compensate for emissions instead of reducing emissions directly, we also promote the conservative accounting principles to ensure that the climate forecast of the biochar is not overestimated.
This report contains recommendations to meet these requirements:
- The reinforcement of uncertainty accounting is critical because the uncertainty can be introduced in several steps within the credit process.
- Recognizing alternative raw floor usage purposes can help us to better understand whether biochar is the best use of this feed from the perspective of climate relief.
- Continuation of research on the durability of the biochar in order to determine the best models and approaches to estimate the durability and ensure that the durability is not overestimated and is consistently assigned.
- The standardization of leakage definitions and clearly and consistently the leakage across protocols can help prevent the emissions of unintentional greenhouse gas and ensure that projects are comparable.
- The construction of a centralized register, in addition to the persecution currently required by protocols, will help prevent a double count.
The improvement of consistency and transparency across protocols can help to build confidence in the carbon market and scale the biochar in a way that is more fair, science -based and more air -conditioned.