Top Photo: From Adobe Express.
Global biochar production nearly tripled between 2023 and 2025, climbing from roughly 180,000 metric tons to 520,000. Going back to 2021, when output stood at 96,000 metric tons, the industry has grown more than fivefold in four years. Producer revenue rose from $47 million to $245 million over the same two-year window, and revenue per ton nearly doubled from $260 to $540 as producers layered carbon credits, tipping fees, and energy recovery onto physical product sales. By every production and economic measure, the numbers are moving in the right direction.
The barriers to faster growth, however, are not.
The 2025 Global Biochar Market Report, released by the International Biochar Initiative based on a survey of 930 respondents across 96 countries, found that the top obstacles cited in 2025 are the same ones that topped the list in 2023. Low awareness of biochar sits at 46%. Insufficient demand for the physical product is at 39%. Difficulty accessing capital sits at 35%, and lack of product standards is at 25%. Production tripled, revenue grew fivefold, and not one of those figures shifted in any meaningful way.
The American Biochar Institute’s (ABI) companion 2025 United States Biochar Market Report, drawn from 450 US respondents within the same survey, tells a parallel story. US production grew from roughly 86,000 tons in 2023 to 151,000 tons in 2025, and total US biochar industry revenue — across equipment manufacturers, consultants, and producers — nearly tripled to approximately $157 million. The top three inhibitors to growth in the US are the same short list: low awareness of biochar, insufficient demand for physical biochar, and lack of product standards and specifications. The third one actually increased as a cited barrier between the two survey periods.
These reports, along with the third edition of the State of Carbon Dioxide Removal from the University of Oxford, were presented in a joint webinar in July 2026. Together they make a consistent case that the biochar sector has figured out how to produce at scale but has not yet built the market infrastructure to absorb what it makes.
The carbon finance numbers show that globally. The share of producers earning nothing from carbon credits dropped from 58% to 35% in two years, which looks like progress. But counted by production volume rather than by number of producers, those with zero carbon revenue represent just 7% of total output. Producers earning between 91% and 100% of their revenue from carbon credits account for 24% of production. The typical producer with no carbon income has a median output of about 25 tons/year. The typical producer selling credits has a median output of around 4,100 tons/year. The biggest players have built their business models around carbon finance rather than around physical product demand, and the gap in scale between those two groups is significant. The Oxford research frames the stakes. Biochar currently accounts for roughly three-quarters of all novel carbon dioxide removal globally, removing an estimated 1.5 megatons of CO2 per year.
Miles Gray, Executive Director of ABI, described what he sees as a structural tension embedded in that dynamic. Demand for carbon removal credits is scaling faster than agricultural adoption of biochar can follow. Farmers are among the more conservative actors in the global economy when it comes to changing their practices. Carbon Dioxide Removal buyers are not. That gap is visible in the survey data: 74% of producers globally cite lack of buyer awareness as their top obstacle to selling and scaling. No amount of additional production closes that gap on its own.
When the survey asked respondents what organizations like IBI and ABI should prioritize, the answers tracked almost exactly with the barrier list:
- build markets:41%
- build standards: 31%;
- fund pilots and demonstrations: 29%
The certification data underscore how much work remains. Globally, 42% of producers still operate without any quality certification, down from 52% in 2023 but still high for an industry asking buyers and carbon market actors to make long-term commitments. In the US, lack of product standards and specifications is increasing as a cited barrier, not decreasing. Those numbers do not improve as a byproduct of production growth. They require someone to actually work on them.
With 89% of survey respondents describing themselves as optimistic or very optimistic about the next few years, the people building this industry are clearly not discouraged. The data suggest they also have a clear-eyed read on what solving the next phase actually requires.
