For the first time, there are official European rules for certifying techniques that remove CO2 from the atmosphere and permanently sequester it. The associated certification system entered into force this month, including for biochar. Participation is voluntary, but those who participate will face clear quality requirements. This is important news for the biomass sector: biochar thereby gains an official place alongside newer techniques such as direct air capture. What exactly does this entail, and what changes for the market?
What happened?
The European Commission has established the first rules under a new regulation with a long name: the Carbon Removals and Carbon Farming Regulation, or CRCF for short. This framework determines under which conditions techniques that remove CO2 from the atmosphere can receive a European label. Three techniques fall under the first rules:
- Direct air capture with storage (DACCS): machines that suck CO2 from the outside air and store it underground.
- Biogenic capture and storage (BioCCS): CO2 released during the combustion or fermentation of biomass is captured and stored underground.
- Biochar: Plant-based residues are heated without oxygen (a process called pyrolysis), producing a stable, carbon-rich substance that can remain in the soil for hundreds of years.
The Commission adopted the rules on 3 February 2026. The European Parliament and the Council did not raise any objections. The delegated regulation was published in the Official Journal of the EU in mid-April, and the rules formally entered into force twenty days later.
What does “permanently record” mean?
In climate policy, a distinction is often made between reducing emissions and actively removing CO2 that is already present. The latter is called carbon removal or CDR (Carbon Dioxide Removal). To count as permanent, the sequestered carbon must remain in place for at least several centuries. For biochar, the CRCF calculates based on the amount of carbon expected to still be sequestered after 200 years.
For biochar, three components are particularly decisive:
- Sustainable raw material: The biomass used must comply with European sustainability requirements (RED III). Waste and residues from agriculture and forestry play an important role in this, but other streams may also be eligible under certain conditions. Wood from valuable forests may not be used.
- Chemical stability: This is measured using the ratio of hydrogen to carbon in the material (the H/Corg ratio). This may not exceed 0,7 for each batch. The lower the value, the more stable the carbon.
- Fair calculation: Only the actually captured CO2 counts, after deduction of emissions from harvesting, transport, and production.
Biochar already yields the most CO2 credits.
It is no coincidence that biochar is one of the first techniques to receive a European quality mark. In practice, biochar has been delivering the majority of CO2 sequestration work for years within the so-called voluntary carbon market, the market where companies voluntarily buy credits to offset their emissions.
Figures from market platform CDR.fyi clearly show this: in the second quarter of 2025, a total of 116.800 tonnes of permanent CDR credits were delivered, of which 89,4 percent came from biochar projects. Since the beginning of 2022, 86 percent of all permanent CDR credits actually delivered have originated from biochar. At the same time, biochar represents only 10 percent of the volume of long-term contracts; BECCS dominates there with 75 percent. In other words: BECCS contracts large quantities for the future, while biochar delivers now.
According to SINTEF and market analysts, there are several reasons for the rapid growth of biochar: the technology is immediately deployable thanks to existing pyrolysis plants and biomass residues, biochar improves soil structure and water retention capacity, the measurement and control system is relatively mature, and the price is lower than that of other sustainable technologies. According to CDR.fyi, two additional market reasons apply: the time between contract and delivery is short, and buyers can start small. This makes biochar attractive, even to parties outside the group of very large clients such as Microsoft, Google, BCG, and JPMorgan.
From voluntary market to European quality mark
Until now, biochar credits were primarily issued under voluntary standards such as the Puro Standard by Puro.earth and the European EBC (European Biochar Certificate). These are private quality labels; good work, but without a common legal basis. With the CRCF, a European, legally anchored label is added.
In practice, it will take some time before the first European certificates are actually issued. Certification schemes can now apply for recognition by the Commission. Subsequently, the inspection bodies that carry out the actual audits must also go through an accreditation process. Only then can projects receive actual CRCF units.
Biochar and BECCS: complementary, not competing
In discussions about CDR, biochar is often contrasted with BECCS, as if companies must choose between one or the other. That is a misconception. The CRCF addresses both techniques within the same framework, with methodologies developed in parallel. Marketplaces are already working towards this. Carbonfuture itself reported at the end of 2025 that it entered 2026 with nearly ten million tonnes of sustainable CDR supply, distributed across biochar, BECCS, and DACCS.
For the European biomass sector, this is an important message: the regulations do not choose a single route, but leave room for different strategies within a single market. The methods differ from one another. For BioCCS, for example, additional requirements apply regarding geological storage. However, the overarching quality criteria are the same for all three routes. In EU jargon, these criteria are called QU.ALITY: quantification, additionality (the technology would not be developed without the credits), long-term storage, and sustainability.
What follows
During the preparation phase, the rules were tightened on a number of points. For biochar, an activity period may last a maximum of five years. Within that period, the certification works with periods of a maximum of one year in which the actual recorded quantity is determined. Furthermore, a conservative margin of 2,5 percent has been included in the uncertainty calculation for one of the methods used to determine permanence. Certification schemes are also permitted to exchange data to further refine the methodology in the future.
Two additional sets of rules are expected later in 2026. One for carbon farming: practices in agriculture and forestry that sequester carbon, such as agroforestry, peatland restoration, and reforestation. And one for carbon storage in bio-based building materials, which will soon allow building owners to demonstrate how much carbon has been sequestered in their buildings. In addition, the Commission is working on an EU Buyers' Club, linked to the new European bio-economy strategy. That initiative aims to pool demand for certified disposals and thereby kickstart the market.
For project developers in the biochar and BioCCS sector, a period of waiting and preparation is now beginning. The first actually issued CRCF units are expected later in 2026 at the earliest, but 2027 is also possible.
Source: European Commission — EU sets world's first voluntary standard for permanent carbon removals
Photo: Marcin, Pexels.com
