Altitude scales biochar credit buys to unclog CDR supply bottlenecks
CDR trader Altitude is ramping up its purchases of biochar carbon credits, positioning itself to tackle what it sees as a fundamental mismatch between supply and demand in the carbon dioxide removal market. The firm, led by chief investment officer Benjamin Schulz, was built specifically to address structural bottlenecks in the CDR pipeline, and biochar is becoming a bigger part of that strategy. Why it matters The CDR market has a well-known problem: buyers want credits, but the supply of verified, high-quality removal tons is thin and lumpy. Projects take years to develop, financing is hard to secure, and the credits that do exist often get locked up in long-term offtake agreements with a handful of large corporate buyers. Traders like Altitude sit in the middle, trying to smooth out that friction by buying credits and making them available to a broader set of purchasers. The fact that Altitude is leaning harder into biochar tells us something about where the near-term supply is actually materializing. ...