Webinars

The Institute for Carbon Removal Law and Policy's webinar series, Scrubbing the Skies: The Role of Carbon Dioxide Removal in Combating Climate Change focuses on scientific, technological, legal, political, and justice-focused issues associated with carbon dioxide removal. This series is hosted by Co-Director Wil Burns.

Latest Webinar

Quantifying Biochar Carbon Removal's Global & Country-Level

1 hour

Biochar is a carbon-rich material formed by high-temperature conversion of biomass under reduced oxygen conditions. Its production is one of the only established carbon dioxide removal (CDR) methods recognized by the IPCC that can also be scaled quickly enough to counteract the effects of climate change within the next decade.

This webinar, held November 21, 2023, focused upon a newly published paper that quantifies, for the first time, biochar production's carbon removal potential at ~6% per year on a global scale, the equivalent of India's annual emissions or removing 803 coal power plants. The paper's framework also quantifies the potential contribution biochar can make toward achieving national carbon emissions reduction goals in 155 countries, making biochar from only sustainably supplied biomass, i.e., non-commercial residues from existing agricultural, livestock, forestry, and wastewater treatment operations. Two of the paper's authors and the International Biochar Initiative, which sponsored this research, served as panelists to discuss biochar carbon removal as a circular climate change solution that should be a part of every country's climate change policy and action plan.

Panelists:

Dr. David Lefebvre, Lead-author, and Faculty of Land and Food Systems, University of British Columbia

Dr. Thomas Trabold, Co-author, and Research Professor at the Rochester Institute of Technology’s Golisano Institute for Sustainability

Wendy Lu Maxwell-Barton, Executive Director, International Biochar Initiative

Moderator:

Wil Burns, Co-Director, Institute for Carbon Removal Law and Policy

Past Webinars

Our webinar series has explored a number of topics and themes over the years. Browse through our past recordings as grouped by thematic area.

Potential Role of BBNJ Treaty in Ocean-Based CDR

1 hour

In September 2023, the Biodiversity Beyond National Jurisdiction (BBNJ) treaty under the United Nations Convention for the Law of the Sea was opened for signature. The treaty is slated to enter into force after sixty nations ratify it. Given the fact that many ocean-based carbon dioxide removal approaches will either be deployed in the open oceans or could have impacts in these areas, the BBNJ may prove to be a key regulatory framework for the emerging industry.

In this webinar, held November 7, 2023, two researchers focused on the interface of the BBNJ and ocean CDR and joined Simon Nicholson, Co-Director of the Institute for Carbon Removal Law & Policy, in a roundtable discussion of the BBNJ’s potential future role in regulating ocean CDR approaches, as well how the BBNJ will interface with other pertinent ocean regimes.

Panelists:

Cymie Payne, Associate Professor, Department of Human Ecology, Rutgers University, and Chair of the Ocean Law Specialist Group of the International Union for Conservation of Nature

Wil Burns, Co-Director of the Institute for Carbon Removal Law & Policy, American University, and Visiting Professor, Environmental Policy & Culture Program, Northwestern University

Moderator:

Simon Nicholson, Co-Director, Institute for Carbon Removal Law & Policy, American University

Institute for Carbon Removal Law and Policy