🌍 Europe removed 150,000t of CO2 through biochar in 2024 🌍

📄 Just one of the many findings of the “2024 Biochar Market Report” which just dropped, now in its fourth edition.

🪨 The fundamental takeaway from the report is this: biochar producers in Europe have three options available - charcoal, metallurgy, and carbon removal. Depending on market dynamics and, crucially, policy, producers will optimise for one over the other.

😧 In 2024, around 320Kt were produced, of which just one quarter or 80Kt went to biochar carbon removal (BCR). On the flipside, this means that we could almost quadruple BCR overnight by creating more incentives for the removals option.

📈 What will this take: price stability at around €150-€250/t of CDR + long-term demand signals, particularly through integration of BCR into the EU ETS.

More insights from the report:

🔬 There are 30 tech providers for BCR in Europe today, mostly at TRL 6-7, but some at 8-9.

🏭 33 new plants were built in 2024, bringing the total to 203, of which 185 are in operation.

☁️ Together, these plants removed 150Kt of CO2 through BCR

👀 So what is the outlook for the European biochar industry? The report estimates

◾ 200Kt of CDR in 2025

◾1.5Mt of CDR by 2030

◾ And 15-80Mt of CDR by 2040

🏛️ My take: clearly, 2024 was a tough year, and delivered below expectations. Still, the trend is clear and the biochar industry keeps growing and maturing. What is crucial now, is that we create the right policy incentives and demand signals to maximise the carbon removal potential of this industry.

🤔 What do you think? Do you agree with this or where do you see the European biochar industry heading?

👏 Highly recommend checking out the full report. Huge congrats to lead author Hansjörg Lerchenmüller and Biochar Europe for putting out this incredibly valuable resource.

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