What Can Bamboo Do About CO2?

An INBAR project in Ecuador, financed by the
World Bank, builds flood-resistant houses using a
native species of bamboo.

Efforts to thoroughly study the role that plants play in climate change mitigation are increasing.

Most researchers focus on the promise of large, leafy forest trees to help remove carbon from the atmosphere; for example Lal (1998) in India, Chen (1999) in Canada, Zhang (2003) in China, and Monson ( 2002) in the United States.

This is because, generally speaking, the bigger the plant, the more CO2 it absorbs – click here to see how plants do this – and trees are the most obvious large plant species.

However, there are some very large non-tree plants in the world and increasing evidence points to a surprising grassy climate change warrior: bamboo.

Read the Development Roast story - “What Can Bamboo Do About CO2?”