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| (AI Image : This photograph vividly captures the operational biochar commercial production facility of MASH Makes, located in Udupi, Karnataka, India.) |
As New Delhi moves to preserve domestic carbon assets ahead of CBAM pressures, high-durability biochar removals are emerging as one of the few carbon categories still attracting international buyers.
NEW DELHI / LONDON — India is steadily reshaping its role inside global carbon markets.
After years of serving as a major supplier of low-cost voluntary carbon credits, New Delhi is increasingly restricting the international transfer of domestic mitigation outcomes as policymakers prioritize industrial competitiveness, energy security and long-term climate obligations.
The shift reflects a broader move toward what market participants increasingly describe as “carbon sovereignty” — the idea that emissions reductions should be preserved for domestic economic strategy rather than exported freely into global offset markets.
Yet even as conventional avoidance credits face mounting regulatory uncertainty, one segment continues attracting international capital: durable carbon removal.
A recent forward-purchase agreement between UK-based Supercritical and Indo-Danish climate technology developer MASH Makes for approximately 10,000 tons of biochar carbon removals is increasingly being viewed by market participants as an early indicator of where cross-border carbon finance may continue flowing in the years ahead.
Operating in Udupi, Karnataka, MASH Makes converts agricultural residues into biochar using pyrolysis systems designed to stabilize carbon for long-term storage while reducing open-field agricultural burning.
India’s Emerging Carbon Sovereignty Model
India’s policy shift accelerated after 2022, when the Ministry of Power signaled growing caution toward unrestricted exports of carbon credits tied to domestic mitigation activity.
Under Article 6 of the Paris Agreement, internationally transferred mitigation outcomes generally require a “Corresponding Adjustment” — meaning the host nation can no longer count those emissions reductions toward its own Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC).
For rapidly industrializing economies such as India, that accounting mechanism has major strategic implications.
India has pledged to reduce emissions intensity by 45% by 2030 while simultaneously expanding manufacturing, infrastructure and energy access. Policymakers increasingly appear concerned that exporting large volumes of low-cost mitigation outcomes today could leave domestic industry exposed to significantly higher decarbonization costs in the future.
The pressure is intensifying as the European Union’s Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism (CBAM) approaches full implementation, potentially increasing carbon-related trade costs for sectors including steel, aluminum, cement and refining.
Against that backdrop, carbon credits are increasingly being viewed not simply as environmental commodities, but as strategic industrial assets tied to trade competitiveness and economic resilience.
That logic is helping accelerate development of the Indian Carbon Market (ICM).
Under the Carbon Credit Trading Scheme (CCTS), India has begun constructing a domestic compliance-oriented carbon framework covering major industrial emitters across sectors including steel, cement, aluminum and petroleum refining.
Market participants say retaining lower-cost mitigation capacity within domestic circulation could help Indian industry manage future compliance obligations and trade-related carbon exposure.
Biochar’s Rise Inside the Durable CDR Economy
Despite tighter controls surrounding traditional offsets, durable carbon removal projects continue attracting strong international interest.
According to market data published by Puro.earth — a Finland-based carbon removal registry backed by Nasdaq — biochar represented a significant share of issued durable carbon removal certificates globally by mid-2025, underscoring its rapid emergence within the engineered Carbon Dioxide Removal (CDR) sector.
Industry data tracked by Puro.earth also indicates that biochar issuance volumes expanded rapidly between 2019 and 2024 as corporate buyers increasingly sought higher-permanence removal pathways.
Unlike many traditional avoidance offsets — which continue facing scrutiny over baseline assumptions, additionality claims and long-term integrity — biochar removals are generally viewed as easier to quantify and verify.
The process involves heating agricultural biomass in oxygen-limited conditions, converting unstable organic material into a carbon-rich substance that can potentially store carbon in soils for centuries while improving water retention and soil quality.
The approach also addresses agricultural burning, a major contributor to seasonal air pollution across parts of India.
A Market Increasingly Divided Between Cheap Offsets and Durable Removal
Pricing trends increasingly illustrate the widening divide inside voluntary carbon markets.
Conventional avoidance offsets frequently continue trading in single-digit price ranges, with some older renewable-energy credits falling below $5 per ton amid concerns over oversupply and credibility.
By contrast, market participants say premium biochar removals have recently traded well above $100 per ton depending on permanence characteristics, delivery structure and verification standards.
The divergence reflects what many corporate buyers describe as a growing “flight to quality” across carbon procurement markets.
As regulatory scrutiny, investor oversight and net-zero disclosure obligations intensify, companies are placing greater emphasis on permanence, traceability and independently verifiable removal accounting.
Liquidity within the biochar segment has also improved as institutional intermediaries, brokers and advance-purchase financing models expand participation in the sector.
Forward-purchase agreements — where buyers commit capital before credit issuance — are increasingly becoming a central financing mechanism for durable carbon infrastructure projects.
That structure underpins the Supercritical–MASH Makes agreement, where international buyers are effectively helping finance long-term carbon-removal infrastructure rather than purchasing lower-cost legacy offsets.
The Next Phase of Global Carbon Markets
India’s evolving carbon strategy reflects a broader structural transition unfolding across international climate markets.
Governments are becoming increasingly cautious about exporting low-cost mitigation outcomes that may later prove essential for domestic compliance systems, industrial competitiveness or trade-defense mechanisms linked to carbon pricing.
As a result, the era of abundant, frictionless cross-border offsets may gradually be giving way to a more fragmented market shaped by sovereign carbon policy, industrial strategy and quality differentiation.
At the same time, durable carbon removals — including biochar, direct air capture and other engineered CDR pathways — are increasingly attracting long-term institutional interest because they offer measurable, science-based removal characteristics that are less exposed to some of the credibility challenges affecting traditional offset markets.
For global carbon finance, the implication is becoming clearer: future value may increasingly concentrate not in the cheapest carbon credits, but in the most durable and verifiable forms of carbon removal.
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