The UNCCD – a sister convention to the UNFCCC – submitted a proposal during the Climate Change Conference in Poznan in December 2008 to get biochar recognized as a climate change mitigation strategy for the post 2012 treaty to be negotiated in Copenhagen in December 2009. Biochar is a stable carbon-rich material which can store carbon for thousand of years in soils while increasing crop productivity. The IEA explicitly names biochar in its World Energy Outlook 2008 as a viable carbon-negative technology. This article gives an insight into this new climate change mitigation strategy and comparatively analyses whether biochar is waste in the EU and the US and whether the pyrolysis treatment, transportation and storage of biochar may be exempted from the significant ‘regulatory burden’ pending on the classification of waste.
European Energy and Environmental Law Review