Micronesia has filed a submission at the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) proceedings underway in Poznan to introduce biochar as a technology for consideration as a “fast-start” strategy to “mitigate climate change in the immediate near-term.” The submission places biochar on the draft agenda to be considered during UNFCCC negotiations in Copenhagen in 2009.
Micronesia’s proposal follows the filing of a submission endorsing biochar by the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD). The UNCCD, a sister convention to the UNFCCC, identified biochar as a unique opportunity to address soil as a carbon sink.
IBI Executive Director Debbie Reed said, “This is an incredibly important achievement, since Micronesia has officially positioned biochar as a mitigation technology for adoption even prior to the post-2012 framework. The UNCCD submission was an excellent start to what we sought here in Poznan, but the Micronesia submission offers a chance to jump-start efforts to adopt biochar as a climate change mitigation technology.”
For Micronesia, an island state, early and rapid action on climate change is of utmost importance. Micronesia has identified biochar as one of a few “action commencing now” technologies that make up an essential “fast start strategy.” It endorses “Promoting biochar carbon sequestration as a near-term carbon mitigation and storage strategy, which removes carbon from the carbon cycle by drawing down atmospheric concentrations of CO2 and provides near permanent carbon storage while also improving soil productivity and reducing the need for fossil fuel-based fertiliser.”
Underscoring both the benefits and the early and rapid action potential of biochar, the Secretariat of the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD) hosted a side event on Thursday titled: “New stoves for rural households to capture carbon, reduce deforestation, and improve soil fertility.” The event introduced the concept of mobilising rural households to adopt new high-efficiency cookstoves that reduce emissions and also produce charcoal that can be incorporated into soils for both carbon sequestration and soil improvement.
Delegates from both developed and developing countries attended the event. Following the talks, many delegates expressed interest in including biochar in their development strategies and in working with the IBI on it’s Developing Country Initiative to introduce and evaluate biochar production technologies at the household and village/neighbourhood level.
