India-based global climate tech startup Varaha and Google announced today a new offtake agreement, with Google agreeing to purchase 100,000 tonnes of carbon removal credits by 2030 from Varaha’s biochar-based facility in Gujarat, India.
The deal marks one of the largest purchases to-date of biochar carbon removal credits, and establishes Google as the catalytic first buyer of biochar credits produced by the facility.
Biochar, or biological charcoal, is produced by heating biomass, such as forest residue, wood or crop waste, in the absence of oxygen, creating a stable form of carbon, which when buried in soil enables centuries-long carbon sequestration, in addition to leading to improved soil fertility.
Founded in 2022, Varaha specializes in nature-based solutions, with a focus on working with smallholder farmers to help remove carbon from the atmosphere at a planetary scale, with a mission to sequester 1 billion tonnes of CO2e on smallholder lands.
The company’s Gujarat facility, launched in 2023, uses Prosopis juliflora, an invasive woody species as a feedstock for high-temperature pyrolysis into biochar, which is then applied as a soil amendment to enrich fertility, with smallholders involved in the collection of biomass feedstock and in the application of biochar in agricultural fields. In addition to removing carbon and enhancing soil fertility, the project also combats the invasion of the species, which disrupts local ecosystems by depleting groundwater and suppressing native flora.
Additional benefits of the agreement highlighted by Varaha include demonstrating the viability of smallholder-led carbon removal, seeding demand for physical biochar through farmer education, and supporting research into using invasive species as feedstock, with Google planning to partner with Varaha on examining the effects of Prosopis removal in India.
In a post announcing the new agreement, Madhur Jain, Co-Founder and CEO of Varaha, said:
“Our team is thrilled that Google has chosen to invest in Varaha’s mission of mobilizing smallholder farmers to remove carbon from the atmosphere at a planetary scale. Smallholders steward 12% of the world’s agricultural land, including in some of the regions most vulnerable to climate change. Varaha’s efforts to strengthen smallholder livelihoods through carbon finance rely significantly on digital innovation. Google’s role at the forefront of technology and leadership in climate action will accelerate Varaha’s work of building the digital, physical, and market infrastructure for smallholder-led carbon removal in India and beyond.”
The agreement marks the latest in a series of large-scale carbon removal purchase agreements by Google, following a commitment announced in March by the company to contract for at least $35 million of carbon removal credits over 12 months.
Randy Spock, Google’s Carbon Removal Lead, said:
“Biochar is a promising approach to carbon removal, because it has the ability to scale worldwide, using existing technology, with positive side effects for soil health. We’re excited to partner with Varaha in putting maximum rigor behind this approach and setting the right foundation to help it reach the scale needed by Google and the planet to enable a net zero emissions future.”