Isometric Signs Its First Carbon Removal Projects in China

Expanding into one of the highest-potential markets for carbon removal

Lukas May OBE, Chief Commercial Officer of Isometric, announced that the company has signed its first three project developers in China, providing the high-quality certification their carbon removal projects need to access international buyers. Direct Air Capture (DAC) company DeCarbon Tech was the first to sign, followed by biochar developers Tongao Greenchar and Vastwing Energy.

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China has committed to reaching net zero by 2060, which will require deep emissions reductions as well as an estimated three billion tonnes of carbon removal a year to offset residual emissions.

China’s Carbon Removal Potential

The country is well positioned to deliver removal at that scale. China's rapid build-out of renewable power, paired with an established manufacturing base, is lowering both capture and deployment costs for DAC. China also has more potential to remove carbon dioxide through biochar than any other country. If all of its crop residues were used, the biochar produced could remove an estimated 470 million tonnes a year.*

Isometric’s First Chinese Project Developers

Isometric will certify the carbon removed by the three project developers against its scientifically rigorous protocols with Certify, its AI-powered platform, opening access to the global carbon market.

DeCarbon Tech is a DAC company that captures atmospheric carbon dioxide and stores it permanently through mineralization. It also supplies captured carbon dioxide for industrial use, and is building capacity to support net-zero industrial systems.

“We partnered with Isometric because of its rigorous, science-based approach and its strong recognition among global carbon credit buyers,” said Leo Liao, Co-founder of DeCarbon Tech. “Building on the experience from our demonstration facility, DeCarbon Tech is scaling reliable delivery while lowering the cost of high-quality carbon removal. Together with Isometric, we look forward to bringing China-developed DAC credits to the global market.”

Tongao Greenchar, established by Tongao Group and Greenchar Climate Solutions, is an integrated project developer that converts responsibly sourced agricultural and forestry residues into durable biochar, which is used in traceable soil applications and biochar-based fertilizer products. Its approach spans biomass sourcing through to long-term monitoring.

“Through our collaboration with Isometric, we want to demonstrate that China can deliver durable carbon removal at scale while transforming agricultural residues into lasting value for the climate, soils, farmers and rural communities. Tongao Greenchar is committed to playing an important role in making this vision a reality,” said Qian Guoqiang, Chairman of Tongao Greenchar.

Vastwing Energy is developing a biochar project in Longnan City, Gansu Province, converting discarded fruit tree branches into durable biochar through gasification technology, for application to agricultural soils. The project has the potential to produce 75,000 tonnes of biochar-based fertilizer a year.

“Vastwing is committed to developing industrial-scale projects that unlock China's carbon removal potential. Our Longnan biochar project is the first step, and we are preparing two additional biochar projects for submission to Isometric later this year,” said Kan Li, General Manager at Vastwing Energy. “Isometric's scientific expertise and proactive support give us confidence in scaling high-integrity carbon removal solutions from China to global markets.”

We're looking forward to working with these developers, and many more across China, to ensure every certificate represents real, measurable climate impact.

If you're a project developer looking to get certified or a buyer looking for high-quality certificates, get in touch.

• Karan et al. (2023) rank China first globally for biochar carbon sequestration potential, at 128 Tg of carbon per year. This converts to approximately 470 million tonnes of CO2 using the CO2-to-carbon molecular weight ratio of 3.67. The figure is a technical potential, assuming full utilization of crop residues.