Harnessing peatland rewetting for effective biochar-based carbon dioxide removal

Biochar is widely recognised as a carbon dioxide removal (CDR) technology, but its stability depends on feedstock, pyrolysis conditions, and the soil environment. Current CDR schemes prioritise highly stable biochars to ensure long-term permanence, requiring high pyrolysis temperatures that reduce carbon yield and intensify competition for biomass. This perspective explores potential synergies between two distinct CDR approaches, biochar application and peatland rewetting, where rewetted peatlands could enhance biochar permanence by suppressing microbial decomposition, offering a means to improve both carbon retention and resource efficiency. Using decomposition rate modifiers from biogeochemical models, we estimate biochar stability in rewetted peat and assess its CDR efficiency relative to a counterfactual of high-stability biochar application to dry soils. This perspective suggests that rewetted peatlands significantly reduce biochar carbon losses, particularly for lower-stability biochars, making them more viable for long-term CDR. By allowing greater flexibility in biochar selection, this approach could improve the scalability of biochar deployment while alleviating biomass supply constraints. While challenges such as land-use transitions and methane emissions must be addressed, integrating biochar with peatland rewetting presents a high-impact strategy to optimise the efficiency of biomass-based CDR.Graphical abstractSupplementary informationThe online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s42773-025-00524-5.