The market for biochar carbon removal (BCR) credits is experiencing explosive growth in 2025. In just the first half of the year, companies contracted 1.6 million tonnes of credits, representing more than the total volume purchased in all of 2022 and 2023 combined. Since the start of 2022, total contracted volumes have surpassed 3 million tonnes, according to fresh data from CDR.fyi.
That momentum has been fueled by a single blockbuster deal: Microsoft’s 1.24 million-tonne offtake agreement with Exomad Green, which made the second quarter of 2025 the largest on record for BCR purchases.
Big Tech and Finance Drive Biochar Market Demand
Corporate buyers are increasingly treating carbon removal as a core part of their sustainability strategies. Microsoft, Google, Boston Consulting Group, and JPMorgan together account for 57% of all BCR purchases to date. Microsoft alone represents nearly half of the global total.
Meanwhile, financial firms including Swiss Re, Nasdaq, SEB, and Tide Platform have taken a more concentrated approach, relying almost exclusively on biochar to meet their climate commitments. Their strategies emphasize biochar’s durability, verifiable impact, and co-benefits such as soil enhancement.
Why Biochar Stands Out
Biochar has emerged as the most widely adopted method of carbon removal because it is affordable, scalable, and ready for deployment today. Nearly 300 unique buyers have entered the market since 2022 — five times more than the next most popular method, enhanced weathering. For many first-time purchasers, biochar has become the entry point to carbon removal.
And with the biochar market’s value growing from $14.6 million in 2022 to more than $181 million in 2024, a compound annual growth rate above 130%, biochar is on track to become the first growth story in the carbon removal space.
You can read the full blog post from CDR.fyi here for a deeper dive into the numbers and what they mean.
Read more: CDR.fyi Points To Market Growth, With Nearly 15M Tonnes Of Contracted CDR By May 2025
