Solution Series: Soil Carbon Practices

Solution Series: Soil Carbon Practices

At F4CR, we’re often asked, “What are the solutions that can restore the climate?” In the coming months, we will attempt to answer this question (and more!) as they relate to nine categories of carbon dioxide removal (CDR) solutions. In this third month of our Solution Series, we examine the potential of soil carbon practices to contribute to climate restoration. Our new soil carbon white paper looks in greater detail at this solution’s climate restoration potential in terms of durability, financeability, scalability, and equity. This blog post gives a brief overview of some key points.

What are soil carbon sequestration and regenerative agriculture?

Soil carbon sequestration is a natural process where CO2 is captured by plants via photosynthesis and then stored as carbon in the plant’s leaves, stems, and roots.

Regenerative agriculture refers to processes and outcomes related to increasing soil carbon content and health. Processes include integrating crops and animals, using no-till agriculture, stopping or reducing the use of synthetic fertilizers and pesticides, and planting cover crops. Outcomes include enhancing carbon sequestration, improving soil health, increasing biodiversity, improving water resources, and increasing the social and economic wellbeing of communities.

Collectively, we refer to these as soil carbon practices.

Can soil carbon practices restore the climate?

Soil carbon practices vary in their durability, financeability, scalability, and equity. Each of these factors plays a key role in soil carbon’s capacity to contribute to climate restoration.

As a result, a considerable share of the carbon burden depends on such variables, which we describe below.

Durability: The timescale for carbon soil sequestration depends on the storage method used and the continuation of carbon-enhancing practices. On the high end, soils can store carbon for hundreds of thousands of years, and on the low end, captured carbon can be released immediately if practices are not maintained (e.g., if a farmer starts tilling soil that had previously been managed with no-till practices).

Scalability: Global estimates of the maximum scale of soil carbon sequestration range from 1 to 22 Gt annually by 2050. There are many factors determining the scale soil carbon practices can reach, and measuring the amount of carbon stored in soils over time is a major obstacle to refining these estimates. Further research is needed to learn which practices are most effective at boosting soil carbon, as well as measuring, reporting, and verifying the results.

Financeability: Depending on physical and socio-economic conditions, costs can range from $45 to $100/tCO2. Funding for these practices can come from federal and state governments, carbon markets, and the private sector.

Equity: The regenerative agriculture and soil carbon movement will need a reckoning before it can be implemented equitably on a global scale. These techniques have been practiced by BIPOC communities for generations, but past policies prevented them from acquiring government support and secure land tenure. Therefore, it is essential that these communities not only be engaged in the work of scaling up the processes, but also receive tangible benefits and reparations for past injustices.

Interested in learning more about soil carbon practices? Download our Soil Carbon White Paper and register for our soil carbon expert panel on Tuesday, June 28 at 1:00 pm Pacific.

The Most Effective Way To Fight Climate Change

According to an article in The Atlantic, “Climate-concerned donors should focus on helping to pass climate policy, not offset their emissions,” Economist Daniel Stern argues that supporting advocacy groups for climate policy is ten times more effective than giving to organizations that are working directly on emissions reduction.

Why support advocacy?

While reducing emissions is a critical piece of the climate puzzle, it is not the whole picture. Long past are the days where we could cut down our CO2 emissions and declare a win. We have reached disastrous levels of greenhouse gasses in the atmosphere. The latest IPCC report unequivocally states that carbon dioxide removal (CDR) technologies are now critical to staying below 1.5 degrees Celsius of warming — but even 1.5 degrees of warming is still likely unsafe. At such a level, the concentration of CO2 in the atmosphere would be around 460 parts per million (ppm), an increase from the ~419 ppm we are experiencing today, according to Peter Fiekowsky, author of Climate Restoration: The Only Future That Will Sustain The Human Race.

Climate advocacy encourages the adoption of robust policies that can have a greater impact than simply reducing emissions in any one sector.

Opportunities for advocacy to advance climate restoration

One sector where policy can have an exponential impact on reducing emissions and shifting current industry practices is the construction industry. To date, effective advocacy has prompted state legislators to implement numerous policies limiting the amount of CO2 emitted from concrete use in construction projects.

Portland cement, also known as clinker, is a key ingredient in concrete. According to the BBC, clinker was responsible for “2.2 billion tonnes of CO2 — equivalent to 8% of the world’s total [emissions]. More than half of that came from the calcination process.” When combined with emissions from thermal combustion, 90% of emissions from the concrete industry can be attributed to the production of clinker alone.

Thanks to advocacy efforts, U.S. state policies have been adopted with astounding speed to address this big emission contributor. There are laws that require that CO2 be sequestered within concrete, and additional laws that require the concrete industry to reduce its overall carbon footprint.

Advocacy for these types of impactful policies has incredible potential given that local, state, and national governments procure a staggering amount of concrete each year. Convincing governments to require low-carbon or carbon-negative concrete in infrastructure projects can have a significant impact on global CO2 levels in a relatively short period of time.

Contribute to F4CR’s Local Chapters

The Foundation for Climate Restoration’s Local Chapter program focuses on achieving these types of changes. Our volunteers are located in strategic areas around the United States, and the world, and are engaged in dialogue with elected officials who are positioned to adopt climate-positive policies.

Your financial contribution to the Foundation for Climate Restoration will help us to scale our Local Chapter network. The clock is ticking for humanity to dramatically reduce carbon emissions and remove vast amounts of CO2 from the atmosphere. F4CR Local Chapters’ early successes in promoting climate restoration policies on the state level shows that significant change can indeed happen in a short period of time.

Solution Series: Forest Carbon Practices

At F4CR, we’re often asked, “What are the solutions that can restore the climate?” In the coming months, we will attempt to answer this question (and more!) as they relate to nine categories of CDR solutions. In month 2 of our Solution Series, we examine the potential of forest carbon practices to contribute to climate restoration. Our recently released forest carbon white paper looks in greater detail at forest carbon practices’ climate restoration potential in terms of durability, financeability, scalability, and equity. This blog post gives a brief overview of some key points.

What are forest carbon practices?

Forest carbon practices encompass afforestation, reforestation, improved forest management, and sustainable forest management practices. These practices each take a slightly different approach to increasing the amount of CO2 absorbed by and stored in forests.

Afforestation is the process by which trees are planted in an area that has not been inhabited by trees for at least 50 years.

Reforestation involves replanting trees in an area that recently housed trees.

Improved forest management refers to the active modification of forestry practices to promote greater forest biomass and carbon storage.

Sustainable forest management aims to maintain and enhance the economic, social and environmental values of all forests for the benefit of present and future generations.

Can forest carbon practices restore the climate?

Forest carbon practices vary in their durability, financeability, scalability, and equity. These practices undoubtedly have a role to play in climate restoration, but their capacity to shoulder a considerable share of the carbon burden depends on many variables.

Durability: Biological CDR approaches like forest carbon practices work to both absorb carbon and store it. However, the durability of storage depends largely on the way forests are managed. For example, improved forest management can include regulating areas where logging occurs, protecting some areas from logging, and incorporating silvicultural practices to improve growth. Improved and sustainable forest management can also increase forests’ resilience to climate change impacts like wildfires and pests that can cause widespread tree death and release of carbon. If all goes well, trees can durably store carbon, but it is less certain and harder to measure than many other approaches.

Financeability: Forest carbon practices are relatively inexpensive, and more funding already exists for these initiatives than for most other CDR approaches. Some forest carbon practices can be free to implement, like allowing forests to regenerate naturally. Others can cost upwards of $50/ton of CO2, like afforestation in areas where significant land preparation is needed (e.g., draining a bog to plant trees).

Scalability: One of the key constraints in scaling forest carbon practices is the limited supply of land. Not all land is suitable for forests, much of our land area is needed for agriculture, and many areas store more carbon through existing ecosystems (e.g., peat bogs) than they would if they were converted into forests. Even if all available and appropriate land were converted to forests, it’s unlikely that forests could reach 10 Gt CO2 removal per year.

Equity: Forest carbon practices can be implemented equitably, but doing so requires careful consideration of risks and participation of potentially impacted communities. In particular, impacted communities should be at the decision-making table when new projects are being planned, and special care should be taken to ensure that benefits of forests — like creating local jobs and preventing erosion — are distributed equitably. When possible, land for forests should be returned to the Indigenous communities who originally held them, as they have been shown to outperform government agencies and conservation organizations in supporting biodiversity, sequestering carbon, and generating other ecological benefits on their land.

Interested in learning more about forest carbon practices? Download our Forest Carbon White Paper and register for our forest carbon expert panel on Tuesday, May 31 at 1:00 pm Pacific.

F4CR at EarthX

By Kye Young, VP of Partnerships and Development

Last weekend, I had the opportunity to participate in this year’s EarthX Convention in Dallas. Since 2011, EarthX has hosted annual events that represent the largest Earth Day gatherings in the U.S. These events create environmental awareness and invite the public to make sustainability a part of their everyday lives. The Expo allows businesses, government agencies, and nonprofits to showcase their initiatives and their positive impact on the environment.

In addition to musical performances, innovative displays, panel discussions, and face painting for kids, the weekend was full of dynamic conversations and extensive networking opportunities. My top takeaway from the busy weekend was that we ARE restoring the climate.

The words “climate restoration” may not have always been mentioned, and the means by which we can return the planet to a healthy climate may differ, but it was very clear. Many people ARE working in many ways to restore the climate to healthy levels of carbon.

I was struck by the widespread understanding that we have far too much carbon dioxide in the atmosphere and need to work on bringing it down to safer levels as soon as possible.

With a primarily local audience, it is no surprise that natural solutions, including regenerative agriculture, reforestation, and coastal preservation, were shared as favored techniques to restore the climate. Notably, there was also some hesitancy around some of the technological solutions in development, but after discussion of testing, researching, and the undeniable need for guardrails, I found that many attendees left our Expo booth more informed about the broad array of solutions available to us.

I appreciated the opportunity to listen and speak to an audience of interested climate activists that brought unique personal stories to support their passion to reverse the negative impacts climate change has had on the planet. At the Foundation for Climate Restoration, we often discuss the need for inclusivity, diversity, and the centering of underrepresented communities, and EarthX helped uncover the areas we need to consider and improve upon.

Following a presentation from F4CR’s Founder, Peter Fiekowsky, who discussed his new book, I met a lovely woman who was struck by the message of climate restoration. She equated learning about our movement to the joy of tending to her personal garden, where she revives the native plants and observes the local insects that inhabit her yard. She understands her backyard joy is her small part in restoring the natural world. After showing me pictures of her yard and her favorite bugs, she went on to share that this thriving yard is located at her new home — a home she established with her family after her previous home was destroyed by Hurricane Harvey. Her positivity and hope despite the most adverse circumstances really hit home for me. The natural disaster turned her life upside down, yet she still looks to the natural world to spark joy and bring restoration to her life.

Her story embodies what the climate restoration movement is all about: through positivity and individual action, we all have a role to play to restore the climate.

This weekend provided me an exceptional opportunity to engage with a large and passionate group that brought this important perspective to the discussion. It wasn’t just local Dallas citizens that provided a view that the natural world is critical to climate restoration. Regional academics, local policymakers, international NGOs, and youth groups all shared their commitments to preserving and conserving the natural world, and they widely understood the promise and benefits of climate restoration.

I look forward to continuing to embrace conversations and learning about the many ways we can ensure that future generations on this planet thrive. I left the weekend recognizing that storytelling and unique perspectives are going to really advance our hopeful message and encourage more people to act in their own way. Together, we ARE restoring the planet.

Baby’s First Earth Day

By Erica Dodds, Chief Operating Officer

Earth Day is always an opportunity to reflect on the sustainability of our individual and systemic actions and to think about what we’d like to see change in the coming year. This year, I’m feeling extra reflective as my 3-month-old, Ari, experiences his first Earth Day.

As a new parent, I find that I’m always imagining my baby’s future. What will it be like when Ari starts walking to school on his own? When he starts to have sleepovers with friends? When he gets his first job? Has his own family?

Working in the climate space, as I do, the backdrop of these daydreams is always the climate. Will there be days when Ari can’t walk to school safely because the air is toxic with wildfire smoke? Will those days be more frequent than they are now? Will he be worried about the future of our climate? And if so, will he choose a job — as I did — working for a safer future?

My work with F4CR has always been focused on creating a safe and healthy climate for “future generations,” but until this year that concept was never concrete to me. This year, as I imagine the next dozen Earth Days, I’m thinking about the future I’d like to see for Ari, his peers, and their future children. Here’s what I’m dreaming of:

When Ari is a small child, the world will look largely like it does now. We’ll continue seeing and fearing extreme weather events, reading alarming (and alarmist) headlines, and calculating our individual carbon footprints to try to do our parts. As parents, my partner and I will cultivate in Ari a love of nature. He will be aware of concepts like sustainability and mitigation and will feel a sense of personal responsibility for the world around him. He may absorb some of the fear about climate change that permeates the air we breathe. But things will shift.

As Ari gets older, I imagine that the tenor of climate news will change. Alarmist headlines will become hopeful. Personal responsibility will shift to collective responsibility. Ari will still feel that he must care for our earth, but he’ll also know that we must hold powerful industries and corporations accountable for doing their part. Eco-anxiety will lighten as our global community and decision makers work toward climate restoration. New fields of climate restoration solutions will be developed and will grow, bringing hope and inspiration to the next generation of workers.

By the time Ari is in high school (in 2036, for anyone counting), Earth Day will become a true celebration of the progress we’ve made towards climate restoration. There will be more and ongoing work to be done, but we will be on the path towards a safe and healthy climate by 2050 (which is, of course, F4CR’s mission). By the time Ari starts college, there will be a wealth of job opportunities in the climate solution space, but his decision about whether to work in that area won’t be driven by fear.

This Earth Day, I’m dreaming of a future where today’s children will be free to build their futures based on their passions rather than their concerns. I hope you’ll join me in working for a positive climate future for our children.

Solution Series: Direct Air Capture

At F4CR, we’re often asked, “What are the solutions that can restore the climate?” This is a surprisingly hard question to answer, given that:

1. The field of carbon dioxide removal (CDR) is very new and most solutions haven’t yet been studied in detail,
2. Each solution has unique benefits and drawbacks, and
3. There are few resources that compare different CDR approaches to one another in an easily digestible way.

Over the next nine months, we will attempt to answer this question (and more!) as they relate to nine categories of CDR solutions. In month 1 of our new Solution Series, we examine the potential of Direct Air Capture (DAC) to contribute to climate restoration. Our recently released DAC White Paper looks in greater detail at DAC’s climate restoration potential in terms of durability, financeability, scalability, and equity. This blog post gives a brief overview of some key points.

What is direct air capture?

Direct air capture refers to technologies that use a chemical approach to capture CO2 from ambient air. It’s different from carbon capture and storage (CCS), which captures emissions at a point-source like a smokestack. We are focusing on DAC because it has the capacity to address the legacy emissions already present in our atmosphere, rather than being limited to offsetting current emissions.

Can DAC restore the climate?

DAC holds potential as a climate restoration solution as it can be durable, financeable, scalable, and equitable, if developed and deployed thoughtfully.

Durability: Typically, technological CDR solutions like DAC only address one side of the carbon removal + carbon storage/use equation. DAC refers to a method of removing CO2 from the air, but that captured CO2 can then be used in any number of ways. Ultimately it is the use of the CO2 that determines its durability, so DAC does not inherently have a durability score. Some uses of CO2 are highly durable (e.g., pumping it into underground rock formations where it binds with the rock), and others are not (e.g., using the CO2 to carbonate sodas).

Financeability: A learning-by-doing approach, similar to what was applied to driving down the cost of solar energy, can be used to further decrease the cost of DAC while being supported by early policy and initiatives. In recent years, DAC plants have increased in number and scale, and investments in DAC from governments and companies have risen in turn. There is also an opportunity for polluters to take on a substantial share of the cost of DAC as a means of cleaning up the mess of excess CO2 for which they’re responsible.

Scalability: One of the key constraints in scaling DAC is its high energy needs. Locating facilities next to excess energy from waste heat streams, wind, and solar can help curtail DAC’s energy footprint. Simultaneously, R&D is ramping up to reduce DAC’s energy needs through innovation.

Equity: DAC can be implemented equitably, but doing so requires careful consideration of risks and participation of potentially impacted communities. To be equitable, DAC project developers need to work hand-in-hand with local and at-risk communities to ensure they are aware of the potential benefits, burdens, and tradeoffs while deciding on environmental justice safeguards to protect against any unforeseen circumstances. Additionally, allowing the community to have the final decision in project implementation is essential to adhere to the equity principle. DAC’s equitable deployment can be advanced by prioritizing projects that can bring benefit to these communities through job creation, reducing air pollutants, or allocating a portion of the profits to support the community.

In mobilizing the deployment of DAC, it is our responsibility as advocates to work together with a diverse group of stakeholders, acknowledging the concerns and risks that are possible while amplifying the non-climate benefits DAC can provide. We can support the scaling up of DAC by educating ourselves and others while advocating for the increased R&D, financial investment, and policies needed for safe and equitable deployment.

Interested in learning more about DAC? Download our DAC White Paper and register for our DAC expert panel on April 26 at 1:00 pm Pacific.