Maximizing Biochar Climate Change Mitigation Impact Through Optimized Logistics

Carbon dioxide removal (CDR) practices are essential to mitigating the adverse impacts of climate change. Some CDR practices depend on the availability and accessibility of feedstocks. The climate change mitigation potential of these practices relies on the difference between their location-specific efficiency and the greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions associated with establishing them. Focusing on biochar from forestry harvest residues in British Columbia (Canada), this manuscript demonstrates that optimizing the selection of biochar application areas and transportation routes can double the climate change mitigation potential of the practice across the province, as compared to random selection. We argue that spatially explicit ex-ante modeling of CDR potential and transportation optimization should become the norm for any new relevant CDR project to ensure the maximization of its climate change mitigation potential.