Keeling Curve

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Project Summary / Description:

This project scales an already functioning, community-run clean-water and biochar system in the Nakivale Refugee Settlement from serving 12,000 families to 80,000 families every day, while simultaneously strengthening food security and local livelihoods.

The work expands three proven, interconnected systems:

1. Clean Drinking Water at Settlement Scale

Biochar-based water filters, first validated using oil-barrel prototypes and achieving laboratory-verified drinking-water quality in 2025, will be expanded with additional filtration beds, electric pumps, solar power, and protective roofing. This enables reliable, daily access to safe drinking water across the settlement.

2. Expanded Biochar Production (3 New Kilns)

Three additional biochar kilns will be installed to supply the water filters with fresh, high-quality biochar. The kiln designs were developed collaboratively between Wales and Nakivale and are optimised for local manufacture, operation, and maintenance.

3. Carbon Removal & Agricultural Co-Benefits

Biochar production is independently audited under ISO 14064 and sold into a high-integrity carbon-removal market, creating direct income for local operators.
In parallel, biochar is applied to surrounding agricultural plots. In the last growing season, fields treated with biochar reportedly showed approximately double crop growth compared to untreated plots, an extraordinary result in Nakivale’s sandy soils, where fertilisers and growth supplements are largely unaffordable. This improves yields, soil water retention, and long-term soil health.

The £50,000 Keeling Curve Prize exactly funds this expansion: kiln construction, filtration infrastructure, pumps, solar systems, and protective structures. No speculative research is required, the project scales systems that already work, with measured outputs, verified audits, and visible community benefit.

The result is an integrated model where clean water, improved food production, and audited carbon removal reinforce each other, delivering immediate humanitarian impact while building long-term resilience.

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How Project Affects Greenhouse Gas (GHG) Emissions:

This project delivers direct, permanent, and independently verified reductions in net greenhouse gas emissions, alongside important indirect climate benefits.

1. Permanent Carbon Removal via Biochar

Biomass residues are converted into biochar and applied to water filtration systems and agricultural soils. A significant fraction of the carbon in the biomass is stabilised for centuries to millennia, rather than returning to the atmosphere as CO₂ through decomposition or burning.
All carbon removals are independently audited under ISO 14064, ensuring conservative accounting, permanence, and no double counting.

2. Avoided Emissions from Biomass Burning and Decomposition

In the absence of biochar systems, much of the available biomass would be openly burned or left to decompose, releasing CO₂ and methane. Converting this material into biochar avoids these emissions while locking carbon into a stable form.

3. Low-Carbon Water Infrastructure

The clean-water system is powered using solar energy and efficient electric pumps, avoiding diesel-powered water transport, boiling of water with firewood, or other high-emission purification methods commonly used in displacement settings.

4. Soil Carbon and Productivity Co-Benefits

Application of biochar to agricultural soils increases soil carbon stocks and improves water and nutrient retention. The observed doubling of crop growth on treated plots reduces pressure to clear additional land and lowers reliance on external inputs that carry embedded emissions.

5. Systemic Climate Integrity

By linking physical production, on-site measurement, third-party audit, and transparent record-keeping, the project ensures that claimed emissions reductions correspond to real, completed removals, not forecasts or offsets.

In summary, the project delivers measurable net-negative emissions today, while establishing a scalable, low-emissions model for water, food, and livelihoods in the Nakivale Refugee Settlement and beyond.

Best Estimate of GHG Avoidance/Reduction of This Project (Tonnes CO2 Equivalent/Year):

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Impact on Underrepresented Groups:

Nakivale is home to refugees and displaced people, among the most structurally excluded populations globally. This project delivers impact across health, income, and future opportunity:

Health & Time Poverty
Safe drinking water dramatically reduces waterborne disease and the time burden of water collection, disproportionately benefiting women and children.

Economic Participation
Refugee-led teams operate kilns, filters, and monitoring systems, earning income through independently audited carbon-removal markets, an opportunity typically unavailable to displaced communities.

Food Security in Marginal Soils
Biochar-amended fields have already demonstrated roughly doubled crop growth, improving nutrition and resilience where sandy soils and lack of inputs normally constrain yields.

Intergenerational Hope
Children benefit from improved health, better food security, and the presence of real technical and environmental jobs in their community, showing that they can be contributors to global climate solutions, not passive recipients of aid.

This project positions refugees as operators of essential infrastructure and verified climate solutions, delivering clean water locally, regenerating degraded soils, and contributing measurable carbon removal to the global effort.

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