Biochar as a carbon dioxide removal strategy in integrated long-run mitigation scenarios

Limiting global warming to under 2 °C would require stringent mitigation and likely additional carbon dioxide removal (CDR) to compensate for otherwise unabated emissions. Because of its technology readiness, relatively low cost, and potential co-benefits, the application of biochar to soils could be an effective CDR strategy. We use the Global Change Analysis Model, a global multisector model, to analyze biochar deployment in the context of energy system uses of biomass with CDR under different carbon price trajectories. We find that biochar can create an annual sink of up to 2.8 GtCO 2 per year, reducing global mean temperature increases by an additional 0.5%–1.8% across scenarios by 2100 for a given carbon price path. In our scenarios, biochar’s deployment is dependent on potential crop yield gains and application rates, and the competition for resources with other CDR measures. We find that biochar can serve as a competitive CDR strategy, especially at lower carbon prices when bioenergy with carbon capture and storage is not yet economical

Biochar · Biomass (ecology · Carbon dioxide · Carbon sequestration · Carbon sink · Climate change · Context (archaeology · Economics · Global warming · Natural resource economics · Pyrolysis · Software deployment · Waste management · Atmospheric and Environmental Gas Dynamics · Climate Change Policy and Economics · Computer Science · Engineering · Environmental Science · Global Energy and Sustainability Research · Ecology

• Techno-economics and value judgments of modeling biochar production for carbon removal in climate change mitigation scenarios

  Open Access•Tabea Dorndorf, Nikolas Hagemann et al.•Energy Research & Social Science•2026

  Incluir item

• Carbon dioxide removal and net zero emissions in Africa

  Open Access•Jeffrey Dankwa Ampah, Sandylove Afrane et al.•Environmental Research Letters•2024

  Incluir item

• Natural climate solutions

  Open Access•Bronson W Griscom, Justin Adams et al.•Proceedings of the National…•2017

  Incluir item

• Diverse carbon dioxide removal approaches could reduce impacts on the energy–water–land system

  Open Access•Jay Fuhrman, Candelaria Bergero et al.•Nature Climate Change•2023

  Incluir item

• Land-Management Options for Greenhouse Gas Removal and Their Impacts on Ecosystem Services and the Sustainable Development Goals

  Open Access•Pete Smith, Justin Adams et al.•Annual Review of Environment and…•2019

  Incluir item

• Biochar boosts tropical but not temperate crop yields

  Open Access•Simon Jeffery, Diego Ábalos et al.•Environmental Research Letters•2017

  Incluir item

• Negative emissions—Part 2

  Open Access•Sabine Fuss, William F Lamb et al.•Environmental Research Letters•2018

  Incluir item

• Ratcheting ambition to limit warming to 1.5 °C – trade-offs between emission reductions and carbon dioxide removal

  Open Access•Christian Holz, Lori Siegel et al.•Environmental Research Letters•2018

  Incluir item

• The SSP4

  Open Access•Katherine Calvin, Ben Bond‐Lamberty et al.•Global Environmental Change•2016

  Incluir item