The Role of Biochar and Peatlands in Reaching Swiss Net Zero

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.