“Over the years we’ve invested significantly in our field data team - focusing on producing trusted ratings. While this ensures the accuracy of our Ratings, it doesn’t allow the scale across the thousands of projects that buyers are considering.”
For more information on carbon credit procurement trends, read our "Key Takeaways for 2025" article. We share five, data-backed tips to improve your procurement strategy.
One more thing: Connect to Supply customers also get access to the rest of Sylvera's tools. That means you can easily see project ratings and evaluate an individual project's strengths, procure quality carbon credits, and even monitor project activity (particularly if you’ve invested at the pre-issuance stage.)
Book a free demo of Sylvera to see our platform's procurement and reporting features in action.
The use of biochar dates back thousands of years, when indigenous civilizations discovered that adding charred biomass to soil improved fertility. In recent years, biochar has gained renewed attention for its potential to combat climate change, thanks to its ability to sequester carbon. This has led to the rise of biochar production projects aimed at generating carbon credits.
But what exactly is biochar, and why is it significant?
What is Biochar?
Biochar is a carbon-rich material created through pyrolysis, a process that involves heating organic biomass—such as agricultural residues or forestry waste—under low-oxygen conditions. During pyrolysis, not all carbon becomes biochar. Some are converted into bio-oil and syngas, but the remaining biochar is stable, carbon-dense, and has multiple applications, including soil enhancement and carbon removal.
Biochar projects are emerging as a key method for carbon dioxide removal (CDR) because they lock carbon into a stable form for hundreds, even thousands, of years.
Market potential
Carbon markets are increasingly embracing biochar as a credible CDR solution. Studies have projected that biochar could sequester between 143 GtCO₂ (Caldecott et al., 2015) and 477 GtCO₂ (IPCC, 2013) by 2100.
In 2023, biochar projects delivered over 90% of all issued carbon credits from removal projects, driving global market valuation to $600 million. Methodologies from registries like Puro.Earth, Isometric, and Carbon Standards are helping to facilitate biochar’s growth in the voluntary carbon market.
However, the market is still young. Like other biomass-based projects, biochar projects may face challenges around Life-Cycle Assessment (LCA) and leakage assessment, where an increase in biochar production could unintentionally drive demand for fossil fuels.
Introducing Sylvera’s Biochar Framework
To address these concerns and provide greater confidence in biochar projects, Sylvera has developed a new Biochar Ratings Framework. This framework evaluates projects to ensure they meet robust criteria for carbon removal, permanence, and economic feasibility.
Our approach follows Sylvera’s standard of rigorous, data-driven assessment, shaped by a 10+ strong team of internal and external experts. The framework builds upon dozens of academic studies and leverages Sylvera’s proprietary Field Data Science and Machine Learning datasets.
To ensure quality and trust, the framework has undergone peer reviews and oversight by an external Framework Review Committee.
Engagement with the industry
At Sylvera, collaboration is key. We work closely with biochar project developers to gather up-to-date, real-world data on project activities, life cycle assessments, and financial models. Our Assessments Team analyzes both developer-provided and public data to ensure transparency and reliability.
When developers engage in good faith, they receive their rating results with the opportunity to provide feedback. Even after publication, we stay engaged, addressing any concerns or new data within 30 days.
Biochar Framework Update
When we launched Sylvera's Biochar Ratings Framework last year, we set out to bring rigour and trust to the leading CDR solutions on the market. As the market matures, so must the standards we apply to it.
That's why we've been hard at work on a significant update to our Biochar Framework, released February 2026. Our updated framework reflects this new reality. The improvements are focused on three things: stronger integrity, greater consistency, and clearer differentiation between projects.
Here's what's changed.
What's New
1. Carbon: Reducing Over-Crediting Risk
The carbon pillar has received the most significant technical updates. Leakage assessment now evaluates both the completeness of a project's analysis and the inherent risk of its feedstock, reflecting a broader industry trend toward stricter leakage scrutiny. Gross removal modelling has been extended to a 200+ year timeframe using multiple recognised decay models, lifecycle boundaries are now fully cradle-to-grave, and two new data quality components — testing credibility and sampling rigour — have been introduced. Carbon scores are now mapped to a transparent 1–10 scale to support clearer peer comparison.
2. Additionality: Stronger Financial Transparency
Financial analysis now carries significantly more weight, with projects required to provide comprehensive financial models that Sylvera can independently stress-test. Projects that claim additionality but cannot provide sufficient evidence for replication are classified as moderate rather than low risk. Score caps have also been introduced to prevent weak financial additionality from being offset by strong performance elsewhere, ensuring the final score more accurately reflects true dependency on carbon revenue.
3. Permanence: More Robust End-Use Assessment
Permanence assessment now incorporates region-level geospatial risk modelling using Earth observation data, so natural risks like fire are evaluated based on where biochar is actually applied. Application method logic has been refined to recognise deep soil incorporation as best practice, and soil classification has been updated to use the USDA texture map with adjusted weighting. For non-soil applications, the focus has shifted to MRV quality and traceability, and score caps tied to anthropogenic risk now prevent projects with significant human-related risks from receiving misleadingly high permanence ratings.
4. Safeguarding & Co-benefits: Evidence Over Assertions
SDG evaluation has shifted from descriptive, box-ticking claims to an activity-based assessment supported by documented evidence, with biodiversity and community impacts now presented separately. Two new feedstock safeguards — certification or proof of waste, and chain of custody — have been introduced to strengthen supply chain integrity. Contaminant testing criteria have also been expanded, with compliance against recognised standards such as EBC or WBC Agro now expected for soil applications.
What This Means for Buyers and Developers
For buyers, these updates reduce reputational, regulatory, and integrity risk. Ratings now reflect a more thorough, transparent assessment of real-world project performance, with clearer peer benchmarking across pillars and sub-tests.
For developers, the updated framework offers clearer expectations and a stronger basis for differentiation in a competitive market. Higher scores now carry more signal — and the path to achieving them is more transparent. Engaging early and openly with Sylvera's assessment process remains the best way to ensure your project is accurately represented.
Updated Ratings Now Live
The updated Biochar Ratings are already live on the Sylvera platform.
Already a platform user? Log in now to explore project Ratings.
Not yet on the platform? You can view the Ratings in our free access version, try it here.
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