The Carbon War Room and the Chesapeake Fund (a program of Forest Trends, the Chesapeake Bay Foundation and World Resources Institute) recently convened leaders in biochar science and technology, the poultry industry, the energy industry, finance, and conservation to explore biochar’s potential as a solution to environmental issues in the Chesapeake Watershed.

The War Room identified the Chesapeake Watershed as an early niche market where biochar projects using the huge volume of waste produced by the poultry industry could be economically viable given current market conditions . CWR’s Biochar Operation intends to continue catalyzing the development of this market over the course of 2010 and 2011.

The charrette focused on the premise that payments for ecosystem services, in the form of carbon and/or nutrient trading credits, can be combined with energy and agricultural income streams to attract private investment and dramatically improve the health of the Chesapeake Bay.

Presentations from the charrette can be accessed via the Chesapeake Fund website.

A situation paper synthesizing the results of the charrette will be released in the Fall of 2010, and will describe the state of the nutrient loading and waste mitigation problem in the Watershed, the current market parameters, and the latest in relevant biochar science.

The Carbon War Room team has been working hard to accelerate the development of a sustainable biochar industry as a means of climate change mitigation and adaptation. To this end, they have been working on four exciting projects, including: bringing biochar to the carbon markets; a comprehensive white paper on the state of the biochar industry and near term viable investments; catalyzing a niche market for environmental remediation; and stakeholder engagement.

The Biochar team is a founding sponsor of an effort to bring biochar to the carbon markets, starting with a series of web-based seminars to facilitate stakeholder engagement in the development of a broad-scope emission reduction protocol. Over 100 key biochar industry and carbon finance leaders provided excellent feedback on technical and policy issues on the pathway to bringing biochar to the carbon markets. Phase 1 of this three-phase effort culminated in a stakeholder workshop at the US Biochar Conference in Ames, Iowa. By YE2010, a protocol will be submitted for the dual-verification process required for VCS and AOS (Alberta Offset System) approval. Careful consideration is being taken to ensure that the voluntary protocol is compliance-market relevant, and Phase 3, to commence in 2011, is comprised of the political and methodological effort required to bring the protocol to regulated carbon markets, particularly CDM. This public domain, broad-scope, non-project specific approach will allow a wide range of biochar projects to realize the GHG emission reduction value of their projects. This project is led by Carbon Consulting LLC and Blue Source, and the Carbon War Room is joined by ConocoPhillips Canada in co-funding the effort. For more information, visit www.biocharprotocol.org.

The War Room’s Biochar Operation is also hosting a charrette to evaluate and remove barriers to biochar as a nutrient-loading and waste-mitigation solution in the Chesapeake bay watershed. The Chesapeake Biochar Charrette in July will bring together policy makers, the poultry industry, biochar scientist and tech providers, and financiers for a facilitated discussion around the barriers and opportunities to using biochar as a solution in the Chesapeake watershed. CWR is proud to partner with Forest Trends and the Chesapeake Bay Fund on this effort.

In addition, the War Room is working with BCS, Inc. (a key management consulting firm for DOE/USDA) to develop a comprehensive State of the Biochar Industry Report, including a few exciting components:

• Scientific Literature Review and Gap Analysis–identifying places where biochar is solidly researched and market-ready (from a soil science perspective) and where to guide research to study further;
• Biochar Industry Survey–collecting vital information on biochar companies that will illustrate the near-term scaling and investment opportunities in the biochar space; and
• Market Analysis–conducting comprehensive market analysis and market model development on early-stage niche markets that are both scientifically validated (per the Literature Review) and have significant biomass waste where biochar is an economically viable and sustainable solution compared to competition for that biomass.

The Biochar Operation Team is currently collaborating with stakeholders at the US Biochar Conference to garner feedback from industry, researchers, and interested investors regarding next phases for the Operation, ensuring that we are most useful in supporting the sustainable growth of this nascent field.