Market

Microsoft has paused all new carbon removal purchases. The company that bought roughly 90 percent of durable CDR last year, more than 45 million tonnes in 2025 alone, is stepping back. Existing contracts continue. New ones are on hold with no resumption date. Microsoft cited a portfolio and market reassessment. That single decision rewires the entire buy side of the market. The next-largest buyer, Frontier, has contracted around 1.8 million tonnes lifetime. Microsoft was not just the biggest customer. It was the market. ...

Climeworks is the most recognized name in direct air capture. The Swiss company operates Orca in Iceland (4,000 tCO₂/year), is building Mammoth (36,000 tCO₂/year), and has become synonymous with permanent, technology-based carbon removal. Its brand is DAC. So why is Climeworks now integrating biochar into its product offering? Because portfolio construction logic is replacing single-pathway thinking across the CDR market. And Climeworks is smart enough to follow the signal. The Cost Curve Argument#DAC is expensive. Current costs are $600-1,000+ per tonne CO₂. Even at projected scale (millions of tonnes per year), costs are expected to remain above $200-300/tonne for at least a decade. The permanence is excellent: CO₂ is captured from air and injected into geological storage, where it mineralizes over thousands of years. But the price tag limits the buyer pool. ...

Two weeks ago, we covered Tapestry’s initial 10-year DAC deal with Climeworks. New details have emerged: the partnership now explicitly includes biochar alongside direct air capture, making this a multi-pathway CDR portfolio commitment. That distinction matters. Single-pathway purchases are bets. Multi-pathway portfolios are strategies. What Changed#The original announcement focused on direct air capture. Climeworks operates Orca in Iceland (4,000 tCO₂/year) and is building Mammoth, which will capture 36,000 tonnes CO₂/year when operational. DAC is permanent, verifiable, and expensive: current costs run $600-1,000+ per tonne. ...

The CDR market has a transaction cost problem. Corporate buyers want to purchase carbon removal credits, but finding, vetting, and verifying projects requires expertise that most procurement teams don’t have. The result: buyers either overpay for the comfort of a big-name supplier, underpay for credits that turn out to be low-quality, or simply stall because the due diligence burden is too high. CUR8 and Isometric just launched a product designed to solve exactly this: the 2030 Portfolio, bundling market intelligence with third-party verification into a single offering. ...

New BNEF data reveals Microsoft purchased nearly all carbon removal credits sold globally last year — a lifeline for startups, but a warning sign for the industry.

Biochar delivers over 90% of all commercially traded permanent CDR credits. The $838M market is growing fast — here’s why it matters.