Where is EU CDR funding today and why does biochar still struggle to show up?

Europe has a plan to develop permanent carbon removals. The money, so far, tells a different story. 

Since 2020, EU-level programmes have allocated €2.275 billion for CDR, but only €0.329 billion has actually been allocated to permanent CDR so far. The bulk, ~€1.946 billion, has supported enabling pieces like CO₂ transport, storage and MRV. 

Against the modest direct funding to date, that gap is stark: it shapes which solutions actually reach steel, cement and soils in this decade. The result is that technologies already able to deliver durable tonnes, such as Biochar Carbon Removal (BCR), are left scaling slowly while pipelines and storage sites take the spotlight.

For biochar, which is already at high Technology Readiness Level (TRL) and providing verified removals in Europe, the imbalance means plants and projects risk being held back just as demand could grow. If Europe wants durable tonnes in the near term, not only infrastructure for the long term, funding priorities need to shift.

What would it take to get near-term scale? 

The Commission’s three recent reports on carbon removals, funding and a potential EU purchasing programme estimate that ~€2.4–€6.7 billion in total purchases would be needed over 2025–2030 to help deliver an industrial removals objective of 5 Mt/yr by 2030, depending on design choices such as price caps, contract lengths, and volumes procured.

In the sections below, we unpack what support exists today, how an EU purchasing programme could work, and where biochar fits in the bigger picture.

What support exists now?

The EU has tools such as the Innovation Fund, LIFE, EIC, Horizon Europe, but they were built for broad innovation and infrastructure. Two takeaways from the Commission’s financing review:

• Eligibility is often bundled with CCS, which sidelines biochar and other non-CCS removals. The fix proposed is dedicated windows for permanent CDR at different TRLs.
  
• Process and predictability matter: applications are heavy, timelines are long, and success odds are unclear, issues the study flags alongside practical improvements (clearer guidance, faster cycles, better visibility on volumes).
  

In parallel, the purchasing-programme study sketches how the EU could buy verified CRCF credits using a multi-criteria (MEAT) approach and different “portfolios” (e.g., lowest-cost, equal-budget, medium-TRL). Biochar dominates the near-term lowest-cost option, with portfolio averages ranging roughly from €167/tCO₂e (lowest-cost) to €391/tCO₂e (medium-TRL)

Where is Biochar Carbon Removal (BCR) in 2024–2025?

On the ground, Europe’s biochar capacity and production continue to climb:

• European BCR-dedicated production capacity is expected to reach ~114,000 t/year in 2025 (up from ~84,000 t in 2024).
  
• Actual biochar produced for BCR is estimated at ~55,000 t in 2024, with ~70,000 t expected in 2025 (assumes typical commissioning and uptime).

In parallel, peer-reviewed work summarising market activity notes that biochar accounts for the vast majority of delivered durable removals to date in voluntary markets—a signal of readiness even as compliance demand is being built. 

So why isn’t funding tracking readiness?

Two reasons stand out in the EU’s own analysis:

1. Program design isn’t yet tailored to permanent removals. Many pots fund innovation or infrastructure broadly; without explicit allocation to permanent CDR, biochar competes with everything, and early-scale projects stall.
   
2. Policy signals are still maturing. The EU ETS review for carbon removals comes in 2026, and clarity on how CRCF-certified units interact with compliance markets and public purchasing will shape investment decisions.

What makes biochar a pragmatic first mover?

• TRL and deployability. Biochar is already TRL > 8, can scale without pipelines or geological storage, and can be incorporated into long-lived products (construction materials) or soils with robust MRV.
  
• Industrial fit. For energy-intensive sectors, biochar can complement decarbonisation—e.g., metallurgy and construction materials—if demand signals support co-location and scale-up.
  
• Real sites exist. Example: La Girondine (France) commissioned in 2022, using forest residues with ~20,000 t/year biochar output serving metallurgy and carbon-preserving applications—the kind of asset that needs stable off take, not R&D grants.

What about certification—are rules catching up?

Yes, but details matter. Under the CRCF, the biochar methodology is advancing. Biochar Europe’s latest asks focus on explicit storage attestation, enabling group-of-operators for liability/traceability, and broadening eligible durable product matrices beyond cement/concrete/asphalt to include gypsum and clay-based materials—all to reflect how permanence is actually achieved in practice.

Bottom line

Europe’s own numbers say permanent removals need billions, not millions. Biochar is one of the few options that can deliver durable tonnes now, with factories running and product pathways established. The funding architecture and rulebook are close; the next step is targeted, near-term support and clear compliance signals so that projects already built, or shovel-ready, can scale from tens of thousands to hundreds of thousands of tonnes this cycle.