Land-Based Mitigation Technologies for Canada
As part of the LANDMARC deliverable “D2.1: National Narratives” the Burkina Faso team has been refining the technology focus of the case study.
Canada is a very large country with vast extensions of forest land (9% of the world’s forest surface is in Canada), with one of the lowest population densities in the world. The carbon sequestration potential in the country is therefore huge, but there are not specific plans from the government to develop and deploy NETPs. Considering this, the LMTs included in the Canadian CS are:
Afforestation: and more specifically, the reclamation of degraded lands, previously used for coal mining. This is supported by the regional government of Alberta.
Soil carbon: With an estimated total of 2000-2500 Gt of soil carbon within the top 1 m, soils hold four times more carbon than the biotic pool (vegetation and organisms) and three times more carbon than the atmospheric pool. Therefore, even small changes in global soil carbon pools can measurably influence total atmospheric carbon concentrations.
Biochar: Sustainable biochar implementation could offset up to 12% of annual anthropogenic GHG emissions Globally and reports that biochar production from agricultural surplus wastes could generate approximately 3.4 Mt CO2 e y -1 in Alberta, Canada.
BECCS: Canada currently has two operating BECCS facilities, but further research is needed to understand the whole carbon cycle associated to BECCS, so it is an interesting technology to be assessed.
