Summary
- Google partners with Varaha and Charm for record-breaking biochar deals to achieve net-zero emissions by 2030.
- Biochar, a soil amendment created through pyrolysis, helps store carbon in soil for hundreds of years, reducing carbon leakage.
- Google’s commitment to carbon removal projects is a morally righteous move, despite simultaneous environmental concerns.
It does companies a lot of good when their spokespeople talk about all the environmental decisions they’ve made and ventures they’ve started that have bettered — or will better — the Earth. Especially in today’s political climate, mega-corporations that continue to commit to renewable energy production or CO2–eliminating measures typically get an “A” grade in our books. However, when these same mega-corporations also contribute to rising greenhouse gas emissions for one reason or another, it paints a foggier picture of their total positive impact. Google, the basis of our lede’s links, is in the news again for environmental reasons, this time for a partnership that aims to counteract its increased greenhouse gas emissions.
Related
Google’s latest planet-saving aspiration is controlling the traffic lights
Plus the launch of Nest Renew for your smart thermostat
On Google’s blog, Randy Spock wrote about the company’s latest partnership to scale up biochar for CO2 removal. Google announced two long-term purchase agreements with Varaha and Charm, two companies focused on reducing the amount of CO2 in the atmosphere, to purchase 100,000 tons of biochar carbon removal from each company by 2030. Spock says that they are the largest biochar carbon removal deals to date, and that this will help Google achieve its goal of net-zero emissions. Additionally, Google will help “catalyze biochar production toward a scale that can help the planet mitigate climate change,” Spock says.
What this all means
Source: JerryRigEverything
Biochar is not a term that is used in everyday discussions, but it’s a valuable material that can aid people and companies in their efforts to slow down climate change. It’s a charcoal-like product that is created by heating biomass through a process called pyrolysis to a point where it can act as a soil amendment. Soil amendments are substances that change the chemical makeup of soil, and using biochar as a soil amendment enables said soil to store higher amounts of carbon for hundreds of years. This, in turn, will lead to a much slower leakage of carbon into the atmosphere, therefore slowing the rapidly increasing temperature of Earth.
This is a heavy topic, and we’re not environmental scientists at Android Police, so even when Google hit its 100% renewable energy goal in 2018 or when Google pushes cleaner energy with Nest Renew, we don’t completely understand all the cogs at play. Trying to understand what exactly it is that Google is doing with its carbon offset deals, though, will make this announcement seem less like a bunch of buzzwords smashed together and more like a genuinely good project. In truth, it’s a morally righteous move from Google, but when it comes with the simultaneous baggage that follows the company around, it’s hard to say that this is wholly good. However, in a vacuum, we love it.
