Terra preta and carbon credits

[Michaelangelica]

This is important news for the pyrolysis industry.
It should help roll out pyrolysis technology faster and reduce the cost of charcoal.
Now all we need to do is work out how much CO2 charcoal sequesters. How long it stays there. Who will get the credits? (the producer or farmer) and who will police it all?

Saturday, May 19, 2007
Model allows farmers to calculate carbon stored in soils and to sell carbon credits
Last week, the signatories to the UN's Kyoto Protocol convened in Germany to discuss the future of instruments and targets aimed at reducing greenhouse gas emissions. Despite a deadlock and pessimism on the chances for a new, post-Kyoto agreement, those worried about climate change still hope a global system of carbon markets will be created. Such an instrument would allow those who are able to sequester carbon in forests, ecosystems and soils, to sell carbon credits to those who want to offset their emissions.

Bioenergy pact between Europe and Africa

[Michaelangelica]

Cleaning up

May 31st 2007
From The Economist print edition
How business iis starting to tackle climate change, and how governments need to help

A convenient truth

The best way for governments to encourage investment in cleaner energy is to make the polluter pay by putting a price on CO2 emissions.

According to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, the body set up under the auspices of the United Nations to establish a consensus on global warming, a price of somewhere between $20 and $50 per tonne of CO2 by 2020-30 should start to stabilise CO2 concentrations at around 550 parts per million (widely reckoned to be a safeish level) by the end of this century.
A $50 price tag would raise petrol prices in America by around 15% and electricity prices by around 35%—hardly draconian when set alongside recent fluctuations.
The IPCC reckons that stabilising at 550ppm would knock around 0.1% off global economic growth annually.

A carbon price can be established either through a tax or through a cap-and-trade system, such as the one Europe adopted after signing up to Kyoto.
A carbon tax would be preferable, because companies would then be able to build a fixed price into their investment plans; but businesspeople and politicians are both strangely averse to the word “tax”.
A cap-and-trade system can be made to work, but the price has to settle at a level that affects commercial decisions. Europe's hasn't: the price has been too volatile, and, for much of its existence, too low, to shift investment patterns much.

Europe has tightened its system up, and the carbon price has risen to a level which could start to make a difference.
But Europe, by itself, will not save the planet. It is America that matters, not just because it is the world's biggest polluter, but also because without its participation, the biggest polluters of the future—China and India—will not do anything.

The best news in the fight against climate change is that business is starting to invest in clean energy seriously.
But these investments will flourish only if governments are prepared to put a price on carbon.
The costs of doing that are not huge. The costs of not doing so might be.

The environment | Cleaning up | Economist.com

[QUOTE]Carbon Dioxide
Submitted by Tom Miles on Sat, 2007-04-14 18:28.

Carbon Sequestration
Carbon Dioxide Sink (Wikipedia)

CO2 Offset and Calculations
Conservation International Offset Your CO2 Emissions

Potential Carbon Sequestration
Terra Preta Applications ~ 5-10 tonnes C/ha (2-4 tons/acre)

Personal Consumption: 10 tonnes CO2/yr
0.3 ton Carbon/Ton CO2
10 tonnes CO2 x 0.3 = 3 tonnes C/year
Volume and Area required to apply C at rates indicated:

Carbon Dioxide | Terra Preta[/QUOTE]

[Michaelangelica]

The Carbon Farmers - Features - The Lab - Australian Broadcasting Corporation's Gateway to Science
Interesting concise well-written article
"The Carbon Farmers"