Earth and Climate Care

Earth and Climate Care

Biochar just might be the best large-scale thing we can do to draw down large amounts of CO₂ from the atmosphere and store it for the long term (sequestration).

As plants grow, the process of photosynthesis takes atmospheric carbon dioxide and uses it along with sunlight and water to create energy and biomass. In the case of trees, the biomass in the form of wood builds up as long as the trees are alive. But when plants and trees are harvested or die, the carbon in that biomass is released into the environment as it decomposes and makes its way back into the atmosphere to be taken up by living plants. This is part of the natural carbon cycle.

Biochar gives us a way to interrupt this cycle and take a sizable amount of the biomass carbon (up to half) out of circulation and put it into the soil or into other products. Biochar in the soil has many additional benefits such as water rentention and release, nutrient retention, pH improvement, CEC improvement and as a habitat for microbiology.

© 2021 Biochar Network NZ

BNNZ acknowledges the generous support of Soil Conditioner Products Ltd, NZ Biochar Ltd, Black Moa Biochar, and Slow Farm Ltd