Boosting the sustainable development goals: biochar’s multiple ways to “heal the planet”

As an “urgent call for action”, the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) were adopted by all United Nations Member States in 2015 as part of "The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development” in order to protect the planet and develop solutions that balance social, economic and environmental sustainability.

Nearly a decade later, the urgency of this call has only grown, particularly from a climate perspective, showing that actions to limit global warming in the current decade are critical for planetary stability: The Earth is dangerously close to climate ‘tipping points’ - events related to ecosystems that, if triggered, could set in motion a self-repeating cycle of environmental collapse with catastrophic changes for the well-being of people and nature. 

According to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), "the pace and scale of what has been done so far, and current plans, are insufficient to tackle climate change" - a sentiment echoed in the SDG Progress Report 2024: “As we begin the second half of our journey to 2030, signs of a determined, sustained global comeback have yet to emerge. This year’s report reveals that only seventeen percent of SDGs targets are on track to be achieved, nearly half are showing minimal or moderate progress, and progress on over a third has stalled or even regressed.”

Time to act now with feasible and scalable solutions

As alarming this sounds, it highlights the urgent need to prioritize swift realizable solutions with a long-lasting effect on climate and ecosystems. To still turn the corner, various NGOs at COP29 presented a statement advocating for a stronger link of national climate targets (NDCs) to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) to enable systemic change.

How biochar can make a difference in “healing our planet”

Biochar can contribute decisively to systemic change, as it has a variety of positive effects on the climate and ecosystems. Biochar is produced by pyrolyzing biomass, thereby reusing plant residues. This process captures biogenic carbon while producing regenerative surplus energy.  Biochar solutions can help to achieve both national climate targets and sustainable development goals by tackling various SDGs at once:

SDG 2 “Zero hunger”: This goal is about ending hunger, achieving food security and promoting sustainable agriculture, with a special focus on implementing resilient agricultural practices that help maintain ecosystems and progressively enhance land and soil quality. Biochar can make a significant contribution in achieving this goal by improving efficiency in agriculture. Due to its porous structure, biochar can store nutrients and water, which increases plant yields and reduces the need for irrigation and fertilizers. Biochar itself is also rich in nutrients like phosphorus and potassium, which are essential for plant growth. To sum up: Biochar makes plants healthier and protects them from damage by diseases, thus enhancing resilience of agricultural practices.

SDG 6 “Clean water and sanitation”: A key focus of this goal is to improve water quality by reducing pollution. Biochar can absorb pollutants from water and is being used in cities to have street runoff water naturally cleaned before it enters nearby lakes and rivers. A recent research project by Priyanka Kudige Prakash at HafenCity University in Hamburg (Germany) in cooperation with biochar supplier Novocarbo examined the effects of co-composted biochar on stormwater management systems. In cities, stormwater runoff carries pollutants into aquatic systems. The study took a closer look at trace organic contaminants (TrOCs), which are omnipresent in water bodies harming the aquatic ecosystem and humans. The research team tested to what extent co-composted biochar with different physicochemical properties can remove selected trace organic contaminants in blue-green infrastructures. The results showed: the higher the concentration of biochar in substrates, the lower the contamination with selected TrOCs. Biochar proves beneficial as a general safeguard for water resources.

SDG 7 “Affordable and clean energy”: While pyrolyzing biomass to biochar, regenerative surplus energy is generated. Industrial companies or municipal utilities can use this energy in the form of Heat-as-a-Service partnerships that guarantee stable prices in the long term. The surplus heat from biochar production is 100% climate-neutral and can be provided as warm water, hot water or process steam. Feeding green surplus heat directly into local district heating networks can accelerate the decarbonization of heat grids. This contributes to increasing the share of renewable energy in the global energy mix, as targeted with SDG 7.

SDG 8 “Decent work and economic growth”: Biochar companies promote sustainable economic growth by integrating innovative climate technology into local labor markets. Biochar production sites are often located in more remote areas with limited job opportunities. In this way, economically disadvantaged regions benefit from the creation of long-term jobs.

SDG 9 “Industry, innovation and infrastructure”: Biochar companies can help to decarbonize hard-to-abate industries: by reducing fossil fuels with green heat and offering innovative biochar products for industrial materials, e.g. in the building segment, to lower their carbon footprint. By re-using locally available biogenic waste materials and creating networks for climate-neutral heat, biochar companies support the “upgrade of infrastructure and retrofit of industries to make them sustainable, with increased resource-use efficiency and greater adoption of clean and environmentally sound technologies and industrial processes”, as demanded in SDG 9.

SDG 11 “Sustainable cities and communities”: As part of blue-green infrastructure projects, biochar can play a key role in making cities more climate-resilient and helping to mitigate flooding, heat waves and water pollution. The main benefits of biochar for urban greening lie in its ability as soil conditioner and to retain and conduct water. Due to its porous structure, biochar acts like a sponge, increasing microbial diversity. It holds water and nutrients in the ground where the plant needs them and prevents them from being washed away. For example, when used as a layer in road construction, biochar can channel stormwater to supply nearby trees – thereby improving stormwater management and plant health at the same time. 

SDG 12 “Responsible consumption and production”: “Achieving the sustainable management and efficient use of natural resources by 2030”, is one of the main items of this SDG. Biochar production contributes to waste management by utilizing agricultural and forestry residues, which might otherwise be burned or left to decompose, releasing greenhouse gasses. According to the European Biochar Industry Consortium (EBI), the recycling of essential nutrients such as phosphorus through biochar application on agricultural topsoil underpins the environmental co-benefits of biochar, potentially boosting humus quality and biodiversity.

SDG 13 “Climate action”: In this SDG it’s all about taking urgent action to combat climate change and its impacts. To stop global warming, we must balance the amount of CO₂ released into the atmosphere with the amount removed. This requires drastically reducing emissions while actively removing CO₂ from the atmosphere. Biochar solutions take climate action in various ways: on one hand they reduce fossil fuel emissions by offering climate-neutral heat to hard-to-abate industries. On the other hand, they actively remove CO2 from the atmosphere: by converting waste biomass into biochar, thereby capturing and storing the carbon contained in biomass. In the natural carbon cycle, this carbon would eventually return to the atmosphere as CO₂, through processes like decay or forest fires. Biochar carbon removal solutions disrupt the natural biogenic carbon cycle by preventing carbon emissions from re-entering the atmosphere and putting that carbon into meaningful use in innovative, sustainable products.

SDG 15 “Life on land”: This SDG aims to “protect, restore and promote sustainable use of terrestrial ecosystems, reverse land degradation and halt biodiversity loss”. Biochar actively contributes to this goal by enhancing soil health and fertility as well as helping with sustainable land use and land restoration. It improves plant-available water in the soil, reduces coarse pores and increases water storage capacity. According to the European Biochar Industry Consortium (EBI), this can retain nitrate in the soil, improve water conductivity, and benefit root development and soil microbiome.

SDG 17 “Partnerships for the goals”: Biochar companies usually partner with industries, local communities and municipal utilities and support them in reaching their sustainability and climate goals: whether by increasing the share of renewable energy in heating networks or reducing the carbon footprint of industrial materials with biochar - these partnerships are meant to transform the economy in the long term and push boundaries.

Leveraging the potential of biochar to bring SDGs back on track

The list of positive effects of biochar and its co-benefits on nature, society and climate is extensive. By rapidly scaling biochar solutions, we are taking action to save our planet and to transform the economy to net zero. With only five years remaining to achieve the goals of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, we call on all political and economic decision-makers for joint action to make systemic change possible and to do as much as possible to (still) save our planet!

This article is also published on Novocarbo. illuminem Voices is a democratic space presenting the thoughts and opinions of leading Sustainability & Energy writers, their opinions do not necessarily represent those of illuminem.