The Western United States faces unprecedented threats from catastrophic wildfires, driven by accumulating fuel loads resulting from past fire suppression and exacerbated by increasing drought and pest outbreaks. Thinning forests and removing excess biomass enhances forest resilience to wildfire. Biochar can be produced from such biomass, which sequesters carbon and can be used to improve agriculture and the environment in a variety of ways. Carbon is valued in ecosystem markets by creating financial incentives for activities, such as the creation of biochar, that reduces the amount of CO2 in the atmosphere. A carbon offset is a reduction in CO2 emissions that can be used to compensate for emissions occurring elsewhere. Offset protocols that properly quantify the CO2 reductions are needed for the issuance of carbon credits, which allow landowners and managers to be paid for increased carbon storage. A biochar carbon offset protocol developed and supported by the Climate Action Reserve, a reputable and well-established offset registry with 18 years of experience in the design and administration of offset protocols, will improve the economics of managing forest biomass by recognizing the carbon sequestration benefits of converting biomass into biochar. The protocol will increase demand for biochar, thereby incentivizing the productive use of waste woody biomass, including fuel reduction thinnings and slash from forest management operations, and greatly encouraging healthy soils practices in agricultural and forestry applications throughout the United States. The protocol will quantify the sequestration benefits of carbon in soils. Ancillary environmental benefits from biochar, including reduced methane and nitrous oxide emissions resulting from the use of biochar as a soil amendment in agricultural operations and as additions to livestock feed and compost, may also be considered for the protocol. Additionally, we will evaluate the potential supply of and demand for carbon offsets from biochar. Finally, we will show the ability of the resulting protocol to generate transactable carbon credits via two demonstration projects. The implementation of a carbon offset protocol for biochar aligns with various state and federal plans and policies calling for solutions to increase carbon sequestration, mitigate drought, and enhance woody biomass utilization, including the California Forest Carbon Plan and California’s Healthy Soils Program.
1. Analyze the scale of the market opportunity: the potential demand for the biochar-related offsets
and the resulting demand for biochar
2. Develop an offset protocol for biochar that recognizes the climate benefits associated with the
carbon sequestered in biochar produced in the United States
3. Demonstrate the function and use of the offset protocol to generate marketable offset credits
through the registration of two demonstration projects
4. Share results with potential project developers to promote the market for biochar carbon offsets
carbon, carbon markets, climate action reserve, California, hazardous fuels reduction, biochar, carbon, healthy soils program, California Healthy Soils Program, California Forest Carbon Plan
