Oct. 30 (Bloomberg) -- The world needs innovative, biological ways to reduce carbon dioxide as emissions trading by itself isn't enough to address climate change, said Australian scientist, explorer and conservationist Tim Flannery.

Technologies such as the creation of charcoal that permanently stores carbon are needed if the world has any hope of halting global warming, which is happening faster than forecast seven years ago by the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, Flannery, who was the 2007 Australian of the Year, said today at a conference on the country's Gold Coast.

Global warming is hitting the Arctic harder and faster than scientists expected, causing unforeseen changes to the frigid region's ice, wildlife, atmosphere and oceans, the conservation group WWF said in April. Producing so-called biochar, or charcoal from biomass, stores carbon for hundreds or thousands of years and can be combined with the production of biofuels.

``There is enormous potential here, and we need that potential if we are to have any hope of beating the problem,'' said Flannery, who is also a professor at Macquarie University and chairman of the Copenhagen Climate Council. ``In my view a global carbon-trading system is absolutely necessary to deal with the crisis, but it is nowhere near sufficient.''

More radical potential solutions such as injecting sulfur into the atmosphere to lower temperatures may have to be considered to avoid catastrophic climate change, Flannery said.

To contact the reporter on this story: Angela Macdonald-Smith in Sydney at amacdonaldsm@bloomberg.net

Last Updated: October 30, 2008 04:35 EDT