A new way of storing thousands of tonnes of CO2 in the ground beneath our feet is being piloted in Lancashire.
Lancashire County Council is one of the first councils in the UK to trial the large-scale use of biochar, a charcoal-like substance that is made by heating agricultural and forestry crop residues.
When they die, plants and trees decompose and release the CO2 they have captured back into the air. Biochar can last for thousands of years in the soil so it is an effective way of storing carbon and helping to fight climate change.
Biochar also helps to improve soil quality and moisture retention, with the potential to make land more productive for growing grass, crops and trees so increasing the rate at which they remove CO2 from the air.
The pilot is taking place on 6ha of farmland on a former landfill site at Midgeland Road in Fylde, and at Chisnall Hall near Chorley where compost, produced from the county’s garden waste collections, is also being used to plant 1ha new woodland to boost the carbon capture.
You can see the progress at Chisnall Hall in the video below.