Why not Artisanal Biochar? A Biochar Life, PBC Case Study
Abstract:
Today’s biochar market is booming as the IPCC and other major organizations publish their support for biochar as the best available, long-term means to slow climate change by removing CO2 from the atmosphere. Unfortunately, the only large purchases of biochar carbon removals credits (CDRs) have been from industrial biochar production companies. Why is this? Buyers such as Microsoft shy away from biochar made by smallholder farmers (artisans) because they cannot measure actual CH4 emissions and are uncertain about its quality [1]. This misunderstanding reinforces the barriers to artisans and the market’s bias toward Western, high-tech producers. What is the problem? Western (OECD) companies get all the money and poor artisans are left out. Given the small size of the OECD population relative to the huge population of the developing world, this seems unfair and backward looking. After all, with less than 20% of the world's population in the OECD and well over 80% in the developing world, who will be the key players in climate change mitigation in the future when population growth buries the people of the OECD even deeper? Moreover, the criticisms of artisanal biochar are largely wrong and so stop the annual removal of gigatons (billions of tons) of carbon from the atmosphere. This brief article looks at doubts about the value of artisanal biochar in the form of a case study of a leading proponent, Biochar Life, PBC.
