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  4. The Role of Biochar and Peatlands in Reaching Swiss Net Zero
 
master thesis

The Role of Biochar and Peatlands in Reaching Swiss Net Zero

Davy-Guidicelli, Jean-André  
June 2, 2022

This master thesis explores the role of Biochar production and Peatlands renaturation as Nature-based solutions to reach Swiss Net Zero by 2050, by analyzing the historical, socio-economic context, and the scientific phenomena behind these topics. It aimed to build a consistent and robust methodology to estimate the Swiss biochar production capacity from biomass potential at the communal scale, and on the other part, create a robust and configurable model to assess current and future peatlands’ GHG emissions at the communal scale, with the emissions savings that a given rewetting scenario would represent compared to a baseline scenario. It was revealed that biochar production from sustainable biomass potential could contribute to the Swiss Long Term Climate strategy by providing around 2 Mt CO2eq of negative emissions per year if properly deployed toward 2050, 40% of the remaining Swiss emissions at this time. The emission of 125’000 t CO2eq per year could be avoided from raised bog, until generating 50’000 t CO2eq/yr of negative emissions. Those potentials respectively rise to the avoidance of 800’000 t CO2eq/yr with a possible generation of 200’000 tCO2eq/yr of negative emissions for Scope 2 (all identified organic soils), and the avoidance of 4 Mt CO2eq/yr with a possible generation of 1 Mt CO2eq/yr of negative emissions for scope 3 (all non-localised potential organic soils). Realizing this potential could be game-changing, but it implies societal transitions such as a profound modification of our land use, together with a change of diet and behavior. Thus, this thesis is an invitation to rethink our agricultural system and the Swiss diet, going from a productivist model to a resilient one, generating co-benefits for climate, biodiversity, and food sovereignty. An invitation to also rethink the way we produce energy and construct cities, with the role of biomass in urban metabolism.

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Type
master thesis
Author(s)
Davy-Guidicelli, Jean-André  
Advisors
Thalmann, Philippe  
•
Nick, Sascha  
•
Helbig, Frank
Date Issued

2022-06-02

Total of pages

118

Subjects

Negative Emission Technologies

•

Nature-Based Solutions

•

Carbon capture and sequestration

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CO2 monitoring

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Environmental economics

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Climate policies

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Biochar

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Organic soils

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Peatlands

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Wetlands

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Ecosystem-based mitigation

URL

Supplementary material

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1W-i-zABZhVggMMXsZHmutC-syGF6t4S2RmdjqFGKe7I/edit?usp=sharing
EPFL units
LEURE  
Available on Infoscience
June 30, 2023
Use this identifier to reference this record
https://infoscience.epfl.ch/handle/20.500.14299/198605
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