Introducing CHAR by Toucan: The first liquid market for biochar credits
We’re here with big news: CHAR – the first liquid market for biochar credits – is now live! 🎉 Read on to learn what CHAR is, what you can do with it, and why we’re so excited about CHAR!
What is CHAR?
CHAR – Toucan’s new carbon pool – is infrastructure for the automated, on-demand buying and selling of biochar carbon credits. It aggregates verified CO2 Removal Certificates issued by Puro.earth (“CORCs”) on one single platform as CHAR. The carbon pool gives access to liquidity for project developers, while credit buyers can freely purchase projects of their choice from the available credit selection.
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Puro.earth is the first standard for carbon credits based on carbon removed from the atmosphere and stored long-term in carbon net-negative processes or products. Puro.earth issues verified CO2 Removal Certificates (also called “CORCs”) to project developers.
CHAR advances Toucan’s vision of helping the carbon removal space scale with efficiency, integrity, and speed. It helps young and established projects in the nascent biochar market to liquidate their credits to fund their growing operations and supports buyers by providing a transparent and efficient way to source credits.
Toucan has collaborated with Neutral, an exchange for environmental assets, on the design of CHAR. Access to CHAR and individual project credits will soon also be possible through Neutral’s trading platform. CHAR will be available on Celo, a mobile-first blockchain network designed for fast, low-cost payments worldwide.
“The technology behind CHAR merges insights from previous product iterations with extensive community feedback, with the goal of expanding the market for durable carbon removal. With the biochar credit market predicted to grow sixfold in the coming years, strong infrastructure is essential for scaling. By building this foundation now, we ensure sustainable growth tomorrow.”
Raphael Haupt, Founder & CEO of Toucan
What can you do with CHAR?
What can you do with CHAR?
– As a project developer, Toucan can help you sell your CORCs into CHAR. Reach out to us to get started.
– As a credit buyer, you can purchase specific biochar credits from CHAR’s available supply whenever you want.
– And if you’re developing a digital product, you can embed CHAR into your protocol or software for automated climate action. Check our documentation for more information.
What are CHAR’s most important features?
Automated warehouse of biochar credits
You can think of the CHAR pool as a dynamically updated inventory – or warehouse – of biochar credits. It holds a range of different biochar projects, which we’ll introduce below, and can be used 24/7.
Project developers can sell their own CORCs into this “warehouse” of biochar credits via Toucan, gaining access to on-demand liquidity and royalties.
Buyers can browse projects available in the CHAR pool, view their information and price, and execute credit purchases without any counter-party risk.
Transparent pricing for biochar credits
All biochar credits available via CHAR are sold for a clear price, which updates dynamically based on real-time market activity. Individual credits are priced based on the composition of projects in the pool. Current price and price history are publicly displayed for full transparency.
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Royalties for project developers
CHAR’s underlying technology will allocate a portion of the sale proceeds to the original project developer each time a project’s credit is sold into or redeemed out of the CHAR pool. This is new to the CDR space: Project developers are now also able to profit from ongoing transactions that involve their credits, instead of just receiving an initial sale price.
Direct retirements
CHAR is integrated with the Puro.earth registry via Puro’s API. Credit retirements can be performed on Toucan, and are seamlessly processed in the Puro.earth registry. Toucan issues a digital-first retirement certificate, which can be shared with your audience right away.
What credits are available via CHAR?
Only CORCs verified by carbon registry Puro.earth are eligible for the CHAR pool. Toucan additionally evaluates eligible projects with 70+ due diligence questions. All diligence data will be publicly available on our explorer soon.
The composition of projects in the CHAR carbon pool can be viewed by anyone, and updates in real-time whenever credits are redeemed out of or deposited into the pool. Credits can flow in and out of CHAR without any lock-in times or restrictions, and they can at any time be redeemed from the pool and sold via additional sales channels.
Introducing our biochar suppliers
Initial credits in CHAR have been supplied by leading international biochar projects.
Oregon Biochar via GECA Environnement (USA) sources forest wood in the Pacific Northwest to manufacture ultra-pure biochar.
“Oregon Biochar Solutions and GECA are excited to participate in the launch of Toucan’s new infrastructure, and believe that it will bring transparency and trust to the VCM, while helping to accelerate project development by enabling additional climate financing to enter the CDR space. Infrastructure, combined with thorough due diligence, is a necessity to scale the market to reach planetary goals.”
Melissa Leung, Director of Business Development & Carbon, GECA Environnement
Exomad Green (Bolivia) recycles biomass residues into biochar, while striving to improve the quality of life for regional inhabitants and championing environmental justice.
American BioCarbon (USA) specializes in the manufacturing of three high-quality, carbon-neutral bagasse products from sugar cane waste.
BC Biocarbon (Canada) produces and manufactures biogenic carbon products for various uses, including land and water remediation, carbon sequestration, and the direct substitution of fossil fuels and their related products.
“ Disseminating knowledge of high-quality biochar projects and improving access to the associated carbon removal credits is key to further developing our space – our kudos to Toucan!”
Peter Popplewell, CEO, BC Biocarbon
Why Biochar?
Biochar is one the most readily scalable forms of permanent carbon removal, and supply is predicted to grow up to 6x over the next two years. The biochar market is already expanding rapidly, but, as in many emerging segments, infrastructure is needed, so the market can sustainably reach its potential. Project developers need a reliable way to access returns that can be reinvested. And buyers need a low-risk and efficient way to access biochar credits.
Learn more about Biochar here.
How do I start using CHAR?
Sell CORCs
Toucan will help you sell your CORCs into CHAR, no Web3 knowledge required. Simply reach out to us via a quick Typeform and we’ll get you started.
Buy CHAR
Check out the following tutorial before you make your first purchase of CHAR, or read instructions in our documentation. CHAR is available to purchase via Uniswap on Celo. 👇
Redeem and retire TCO2s
Redeem CHAR for TCO2s of your choice via app.toucan.earth, then retire or detokenize them.
Explore eligible projects
Check out the inventory from Puro.earth and see if your CORCs are eligible to be deposited into CHAR. Just try searching our Explorer.
CHAR video walkthough
Watch this video which takes you through the different features of the CHAR pool.