Biochar COP24 Travel Project
Tax deductible
Climate Change Breakthrough: Help USBI Attend COP24 in Poland
The latest report from the International Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) contains both new warnings and new hope for the world regarding climate change. Decreasing fossil fuel emissions is no longer enough to stop climate change. We must now begin to remove carbon from the atmosphere. For the first time ever, biochar has been included in the IPCC's October 8 report as a recommendation for large scale and cost effective atmospheric carbon removal.
Although biochar, a form of anthropogenic charcoal used in soils, has been in use for millennia, its potential remains unknown to many who are focused on climate change solutions. The U.S. Biochar Initiative (USBI), a non-profit focused on providing biochar education to a broad spectrum of interest groups, from farmers to policy-makers, has been invited to send three delegates to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (known more generally as COP) to be held in Poland in December 2018. We plan to have a booth there to educate other delegates of the many important climate related advantages of biochar.
USBI strongly believes that biochar can play a significant role in not only addressing the climate challenge, but also in addressing many of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). We believe having delegates that can speak knowledgeably to those working on climate issues is critical. Our plan is to send three different delegates for each of the two weeks. To do this effectively, we need your help. Funding to cover traveling expenses for some of our delegates is urgently needed.
Unlike some other negative emissions technologies, biochar is simple, scalable and shovel-ready. Indigenous cultures around the globe have been using biochar in soils to improve soil fertility for millennia. Biochar can be created using both low-tech and high-tech methods. A revival of simple, cost effective methods has been happening over the past decade.
Smallholder farmers in more than 70 countries have learned how to make low-tech yet high quality biochar from crop residues and combine it with livestock manures to create slow release biochar fertilizers. This not only helps store carbon, but boosts farmer livelihoods, enhances food security and safety, and reduces the need for expensive chemical fertilizers. Over the past decade, there have been thousands of studies done comparing crop growth in soils fortified with organic matter mixed with biochar vs. untreated crops. A large majority of these studies show significant crop growth improvement with biochar mixtures.
Larger scale biochar production is also ramping up with 200 plants planned in China, where they are focused on reducing air pollution generated from burning crop residues in fields and using biochar to immobilize heavy metals in soils used to grow food. In the U.S. and Europe, large scale biochar production is increasingly found in areas choking on organic residues, such as livestock manures, biosolids, food waste and storm debris.
Many different types of biochar production technologies are already in use with more on the way. Most generate significant heat, which can be used in centralized heating systems or for drying crop residues. Some technologies are capable of creating valuable co-products, such as electricity, bio-oils, and wood vinegar.
Increasingly biochar is being used in non-agricultural scenarios, including remediation, reforestation, filtration and even in building materials. These additional uses have significantly enhanced the carbon sequestration potential of biochar as well as its ability to positively impact the environment and improve human health.
Misconceptions and lack of information about biochar abound. Sending well-informed biochar experts from academia and industry to an event such as COP24 can help dispel many of the myths and exaggerations that have sometimes prevented biochar from being considered more seriously, as not only a valuable climate change mitigation tool, but as a mechanism to help achieve many of the UN's Sustainable Development Goals.
Help us bring these exciting new developments to those with the funding and platforms to make a material difference in rebalancing carbon. Our goal is to raise $10,000. All donations are fully tax deductible to the extent allowable. Also, please share this appeal on your Facebook page or Twitter feed and forward it to anyone you know who is concerned about climate change. If everyone spreads the message, we can reach hundreds of people. Thanks very much.
If you would like to learn more about the role of biochar and other atmospheric carbon sequestration technologies in the IPCC’s latest report, see this short 'Inside Climate News' article from October 10, 2018:
https://insideclimatenews.org/news/12102018/global-warming-solutions-negative-emissions-carbon-capture-technology-ipcc-climate-change-report
For more detailed information about biochar and carbon sequestration, including links to peer reviewed papers and the full IPCC report, see this October 19, 2018 article from 'The Biochar Journal':
https://www.biochar-journal.org/en/ct/94-Biochar-and-PyCCS-included-as-negative-emission-technology-by-the-IPCC .
For further information about how climate change is affecting major food crops worldwide, see this October 25, 2018 piece from 'NPR'. While biochar is not mentioned in the article, one of biochar’s most important features is its ability to help retain water at plant root level during droughts. Also, in heavy rain storms, biochar helps to prevent top soil erosion and nutrient runoff, which contaminates water wells and downstream municipal drinking water, and also leads to toxic algal blooms, like those in the giant "dead zone" in the Gulf of Mexico, Lake Erie and Lake Okeechobee in Florida.
https://www.npr.org/sections/thesalt/2018/10/25/658588158/5-major-crops-in-the-crosshairs-of-climate-change .
The latest report from the International Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) contains both new warnings and new hope for the world regarding climate change. Decreasing fossil fuel emissions is no longer enough to stop climate change. We must now begin to remove carbon from the atmosphere. For the first time ever, biochar has been included in the IPCC's October 8 report as a recommendation for large scale and cost effective atmospheric carbon removal.
Although biochar, a form of anthropogenic charcoal used in soils, has been in use for millennia, its potential remains unknown to many who are focused on climate change solutions. The U.S. Biochar Initiative (USBI), a non-profit focused on providing biochar education to a broad spectrum of interest groups, from farmers to policy-makers, has been invited to send three delegates to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (known more generally as COP) to be held in Poland in December 2018. We plan to have a booth there to educate other delegates of the many important climate related advantages of biochar.
USBI strongly believes that biochar can play a significant role in not only addressing the climate challenge, but also in addressing many of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). We believe having delegates that can speak knowledgeably to those working on climate issues is critical. Our plan is to send three different delegates for each of the two weeks. To do this effectively, we need your help. Funding to cover traveling expenses for some of our delegates is urgently needed.
Unlike some other negative emissions technologies, biochar is simple, scalable and shovel-ready. Indigenous cultures around the globe have been using biochar in soils to improve soil fertility for millennia. Biochar can be created using both low-tech and high-tech methods. A revival of simple, cost effective methods has been happening over the past decade.
Smallholder farmers in more than 70 countries have learned how to make low-tech yet high quality biochar from crop residues and combine it with livestock manures to create slow release biochar fertilizers. This not only helps store carbon, but boosts farmer livelihoods, enhances food security and safety, and reduces the need for expensive chemical fertilizers. Over the past decade, there have been thousands of studies done comparing crop growth in soils fortified with organic matter mixed with biochar vs. untreated crops. A large majority of these studies show significant crop growth improvement with biochar mixtures.
Larger scale biochar production is also ramping up with 200 plants planned in China, where they are focused on reducing air pollution generated from burning crop residues in fields and using biochar to immobilize heavy metals in soils used to grow food. In the U.S. and Europe, large scale biochar production is increasingly found in areas choking on organic residues, such as livestock manures, biosolids, food waste and storm debris.
Many different types of biochar production technologies are already in use with more on the way. Most generate significant heat, which can be used in centralized heating systems or for drying crop residues. Some technologies are capable of creating valuable co-products, such as electricity, bio-oils, and wood vinegar.
Increasingly biochar is being used in non-agricultural scenarios, including remediation, reforestation, filtration and even in building materials. These additional uses have significantly enhanced the carbon sequestration potential of biochar as well as its ability to positively impact the environment and improve human health.
Misconceptions and lack of information about biochar abound. Sending well-informed biochar experts from academia and industry to an event such as COP24 can help dispel many of the myths and exaggerations that have sometimes prevented biochar from being considered more seriously, as not only a valuable climate change mitigation tool, but as a mechanism to help achieve many of the UN's Sustainable Development Goals.
Help us bring these exciting new developments to those with the funding and platforms to make a material difference in rebalancing carbon. Our goal is to raise $10,000. All donations are fully tax deductible to the extent allowable. Also, please share this appeal on your Facebook page or Twitter feed and forward it to anyone you know who is concerned about climate change. If everyone spreads the message, we can reach hundreds of people. Thanks very much.
If you would like to learn more about the role of biochar and other atmospheric carbon sequestration technologies in the IPCC’s latest report, see this short 'Inside Climate News' article from October 10, 2018:
https://insideclimatenews.org/news/12102018/global-warming-solutions-negative-emissions-carbon-capture-technology-ipcc-climate-change-report
For more detailed information about biochar and carbon sequestration, including links to peer reviewed papers and the full IPCC report, see this October 19, 2018 article from 'The Biochar Journal':
https://www.biochar-journal.org/en/ct/94-Biochar-and-PyCCS-included-as-negative-emission-technology-by-the-IPCC .
For further information about how climate change is affecting major food crops worldwide, see this October 25, 2018 piece from 'NPR'. While biochar is not mentioned in the article, one of biochar’s most important features is its ability to help retain water at plant root level during droughts. Also, in heavy rain storms, biochar helps to prevent top soil erosion and nutrient runoff, which contaminates water wells and downstream municipal drinking water, and also leads to toxic algal blooms, like those in the giant "dead zone" in the Gulf of Mexico, Lake Erie and Lake Okeechobee in Florida.
https://www.npr.org/sections/thesalt/2018/10/25/658588158/5-major-crops-in-the-crosshairs-of-climate-change .
Organizer
Kim Chaffee
Organizer
Glen Allen, VA
United States Biochar Initiative (Usbi)
Beneficiary