Forestry removals
Biological storage. Lower cost, but exposed to fire, drought, disease, illegal logging, land-use change, and future management decisions. Reversal risk is inherent.
CDR, in practical terms
A NetZero One plant does not only produce biochar. It produces a certified climate service: high-permanence carbon dioxide removal.
Removal
Carbon is taken out of the atmosphere through biomass growth, then part of it is converted into stable biochar.
Permanence
The climate value comes from keeping that carbon out of the active carbon cycle for centuries, not a few years.
Certification
Credits are issued only after carbon content, stability, project emissions, evidence, and audit requirements have been checked.
Why this is not the same as forestry
Forestry removals can be useful, but they are a different product. They store carbon in living biomass. High-permanence CDR stores carbon in a form designed to last much longer and to be measured more directly.
Biochar CDR
Physical storage. Carbon is stabilised through pyrolysis, sampled, analysed, tracked, and applied to soil. The claim is smaller than gross production, but more durable and auditable.
That difference explains the price gap. Buyers are not paying only for a tonne of CO2 on a spreadsheet; they are paying for permanence, measurement, traceability, and lower reversal risk.
Why demand should keep growing
Buyers are no longer relying only on voluntary climate goodwill. Corporate standards are turning removals into a scheduled part of credible net-zero plans.
SBTi V2 changes the signal
The Corporate Net-Zero Standard V2.0 was released in June 2026, becomes effective on 1 February 2027, and becomes mandatory for all target submissions after 31 January 2028.
Removal becomes time-bound
From 2035, Category A companies are expected to support removals equal to at least 1% of ongoing scope 1, 2, and 3 emissions, rising linearly to 100% by their net-zero year.
Durability becomes explicit
For long-lived GHGs, SBTi requires an increasing share of long-lived removals: at least 10% of covered long-lived emissions in 2035, rising to 100% by net-zero.
Scope 3 can be shared
The standard allows value-chain partners to allocate scope 3 removal responsibility through written agreements. That matters for industrial and agricultural supply chains.
Will prices stay high?
No one can guarantee a future credit price. But high-permanence CDR has structural reasons to remain a premium market: it is asset-heavy, data-heavy, audited, and still extremely supply-constrained.
Industrial cost base
A credit reflects real project infrastructure: biomass sourcing, pyrolysis equipment, operations, logistics, lab testing, MRV, and audits.
Supply takes time
Demand can appear faster than plants can be financed, permitted, built, operated, certified, and scaled.
Permanence premium
Cheap temporary credits are not the benchmark for buyers that need long-lived removals to neutralise long-lived emissions.