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Organised by Puro.earth in partnership with the Carbon Business Council, the APAC CDR Summit 2025 brought together key voices shaping the future of carbon removal across the region.
We were grateful to be spotlighted by Puro, a Nasdaq subsidiary and leading carbon removal registry globally, on the Biochar Breakthroughs panel, moderated by Ms YingYing Chen from Standard Chartered, alongside fellow innovators and practitioners working at the frontier of durable CDR.
We discussed some of the unique challenges to scaling biochar projects (not least logistics), and also the pivotal role of Asia in scaling carbon removal—thanks to its abundant land, biomass potential, and climate innovation, especially in high-impact communities like those we work with in India and Cambodia.
Arukah also had the opportunity to share our high co-benefits model, focused on a 50% income share to participating smallholders, and scalable use of biochar for farming yield improvement. Other panelists shared promising emerging uses for built environments, including green steel. Throughout we also agreed on the critical role of high integrity MRV for building trust in global markets for project quality - including digital MRV, which is a key focus for Arukah.
Thank you to the organizers and all participants for the meaningful exchange - we are looking forward to scaling the next Gigaton from Asia together.
At the ADB-convened AMM-3 establishing the 2030 Kunming Strategic Framework, Arukah was one of 5 external speakers making a statement to the 6 agriculture ministers and delegations - alongside the World Bank, Food and Agriculture Organisation, World Food Programme, and the Mekong Institute.
We shared from our biochar project in Cambodia, and encouraged broad support across the GMS for Biochar at Scale as an immediate solution to divert burning, increase carbon sequestration, and improve farming yields and farmer incomes.
We are delighted to join the inaugural Asia Impact Forum organised by the Global Impact Investing Network (GIIN).
On our panel with Accion Venture Lab and AquaExchange Agritech, we will be discussing innovative solutions for building climate-resilient value chains for smallholders. Arukah is looking forward to sharing our experience with digital tracking as an enabler for scalability, building trust in project integrity, and also a higher income share to participating farmers, for instance via our dMRV partnership with Gold Standard on household biogas, and our biochar initiative in Cambodia.
At the annual Future Food Asia forum organised by ID Capital partnering with IFC, A*Star, and leading industry players like Adisseo and Buhler, Arukah was grateful for the opportunity to share on a dMRV panel our approach and findings to date on the critical importance of aligning climate action with farmer incentives to deliver high integrity climate mitigation at scale.
Arukah’s insight and conviction is farmers are not incidental beneficiaries but instead core agents required to drive and sustain change in our region’s agriculture and food systems.
Designing and scaling large scale systems change will require situating and incentivising them as such. At Arukah, our integrated end-to-end dMRV platform — currently the only dMRV approved globally by Gold Standard for biogas — we channel 50% of carbon credit revenue directly to farmers for verified project participation.
For instance, we shared key findings from our project in household scale biogas production from livestock manure - namely, a measurable increase in motivation and participation when farmers can earn payments in proportion to their activities.
For instance, in A/B tests run in India since 2H24, we fully metered all digesters and all aspects of the project were similar except for farmer-level payments.
Based on our initial findings, farmers in villages with no payments for verified biogas processing dropped off usage significantly over time.
In contrast, usage is sustained and even increased over time where farmers are paid for verified processing.
This demonstrates that tangible and equitable economic incentives are critical to sustaining and scaling farmer action at scale.
We enjoyed the rich discussion with fellow panelists and conference participants, and we look forward to many fruitful collaborations to come. With livelihoods at the heart of our model, Arukah leverages digital MRV, biometric ID systems, and licensed digital payment infrastructure to ensure transparency, traceability, and trust. This foundation uniquely positions us to unlock large scale, high integrity, nature-based climate mitigation from the Global South, while supporting the development of more resilient, inclusive, and community-driven food systems.
Please do reach out to us if you share our vision and would like to partner as a carbon credit buyer or project financier.
In late March, Arukah and our local partners in Cambodia had the opportunity to host a World Bank delegation to our biochar plant, the largest in Southeast Asia.
We had the opportunity to share our vision for biochar at scale, and discuss how our innovative and inclusive business model unlocks critical capital not only for large scale climate mitigation but also new incomes for climate adaptation, via allocating a 50% gross share of carbon credit income to participating smallholder farmers.
Our initiative is well aligned with Cambodia’s current national priorities across carbon sequestration, improved farming productivity for food security, improved economic livelihoods for farmers, additional income streams for value-add processing (mill-level), and improved air quality via diverting agriculture waste burning. And Cambodia’s large agriculture production, coupled with strong digital infrastructure for sensor-based tracking and smart systems, and digital payments all the way upstream to farmers, are key enablers for biochar at scale.
Unlocking new pathways to economic livelihoods will be increasingly critical in the coming years. Without interventions and enabling innovations, the World Bank estimates a 800 million job deficit in the Global South for fresh graduates in the coming decade.
Agriculture-rich nations in the Global South also are recovering from 2 rounds of fertiliser supply chain dislocations due to Covid-19, and then the Russia-Ukraine war.
With our local partner Soma —a pioneer and leader in Cambodia for regenerative and sustainable agriculture— Arukah has deep alignment: From the willingness to be first adopter of promising innovations that can establish foundations for large scale systems improvement, to our commitment to best in class, institutional project design and structuring, and our shared focus on improving the economic livelihoods of farmers via scalable market access.
Our project also features domestic production of equipment by a local advanced manufacturer, Quantum. This will unlock additional pathways to economic livelihoods in Cambodia, via growing the demand for skilled advanced engineering work for local graduates - a model that could be replicated over time in more agriculture-rich emerging economies.
We are early in our journey still, but are grateful for the trust placed in us by our partners, and also new partners to come across global carbon credit buyers and project financiers - aligned to our vision of unlocking economic livehoods and flourishing from the Global South with resources that global challenges need.
We look forward to the growth that will be unlocked in the years to come from harnessing the strengths of our region in agriculture resources and know-how, bottom-up Global South innovation and willingness to adopt best in class solutions, along with our global network, building from Singapore’s deep capital markets, and reach into global finance and cutting edge innovation.
Hosted by the Asian Development Bank (ADB), Arukah was invited to participate in a regional workshop to share insights on our approach to carbon markets as a scalable source of climate financing in agriculture - enabled by digital tracking, as well as our biochar plans across the Greater Mekong Subregion (GMS).
We are grateful for a rich set of discussions and next step partnerships, and look forward to contributing at scale to the post-processing traceability of agriculture supply chains across our region.
In our presentation, we shared the immediate and measurable impact of our project design across decarbonisation, food security and poverty alleviation. And in a vibrant post-presentation discussion some key items were discussed that are both barriers in scaling biochar in the GMS, as well as scalable business opportunities -
First, there are limited regional lab testing capabilities, despite the deep technical expertise in our region.
Second, biochar fertiliser standards and know how are currently not widespread beyond specific markets, but member countries in the GMS have so far been very open and willing to share.
Finally, Arukah shared our approach of absorbing upfront costs at the high risk phase of the project to partner with groups that are new to this space, as long as they are open to our inclusive business model featuring a 50% gross carbon revenue share to farmers. While buyer-focused project design and high frequency digitalised MRV can unlock more purchasing to our region - the entry barriers of minimum scale and upfront costs remain significant. We discussed our approach, and also continue to welcome new partners - please do reach out if this is an area of interest!
Hosted by the ADB, Arukah shared alongside representatives from Mitsubishi, Pollination, the Global Green Growth Institute, and leading researchers.
We shared our experience leveraging carbon markets to unlock climate finance for smallholder farmers - and the critical role of business models that align incentives, and digital tracking for scaling with integrity and affordability.
Arukah was spotlighted as a top 5 durable carbon removal (CDR) supplier in CDR.fyi’s Q1 2025 market update. Currently, biomass-based solutions like biochar account for 99% of all CDR deliveries. While Asia is relatively later to this segment; driving only 1% of 2024 transactions - we think 2025 is an inflection point: On the ground we are seeing growing supply and demand year to date - we are excited to be part of the contributions of our region in 2025 and beyond!
At the Asia Premiere of Legion 44 - a Film and Global Movement about the rise of Carbon Removal, Arukah was delighted to have the opportunity to join a post-screening panel alongside global CDR pioneers.
Whereas CDR to date has been largely anchored in the Global North and outside of Asia - We had the opportunity to discuss the rapid emergence of high quality carbon removal solutions that are immediately scalable from the rich agriculture lands of Asia and the Global South, and to share how the comparative advantages of these markets can be a critical component to global progress on CDR adoption and scalability.
Arukah joined Workshop 1 of the Inaugural Green Circle Summit alongside Climeworks (Swiss Direct Air Capture company), Isometric (buyer-led registry) and BCG at the Elevandi Insights Forum: Generating High Quality Credits through Verified Abatement and Removals.
We were proud to represent emerging high quality carbon removal projects from the Global South that are a critical component of scaling Carbon Removal immediately and cost effectively.
Arukah also joined Workshop 3: Fostering Market Integrity, Liquidity, and Efficiency - moderated by a Stanford fellow, alongside large buyers and traditional financiers including banks, the CaptureNow durability trust, and global climate VCs Lowercarbon Capital and Carbon Removal Partners.
We shared our experience with leveraging high quality Carbon Removal (and carbon markets more broadly) as a critical source of financing for food and Global South agriculture. We also discussed how Arukah's equitable income share model is rapidly unlocking regulatory support.
Arukah joined a discussion moderated by the IPCC Lead Author on mitigation, along with a fellow founder in the biofuels space.
We shared about the power of high quality, verifiable and interoperable data to unlock Green Finance for Sustainable Development - and discussed how a Cambrian shift in access to finance is quickly emerging with new, structured and standardised data across a range of sectors from built environments (real estate) to biofuels and last-mile rural agriculture.
Arukah is delighted to be part of the growing climate ecosystem in Asia—ASEAN and Japan!
Last week, we had the privilege of being a part of two impactful events:
1) Judge at the Hitachi Green Finance Hackathon, supporting innovation solutions for sustainable finance.
2) Panelist at SE Asia Climate Investing, part of the UN Women Climate Tech Accelerator by SheLovesTech, discussing the future of climate-focused investments.
We are excited to continue fostering climate innovation and collaboration in the region!
Arukah was spotlighted in Boston Consulting Group’s latest report released on 30th Jan 2025, Unlocking the Full Potential in Carbon Markets: Pathways to Growth and Sustainability in Asia.
Dialogues like the Green Circle Climate Forum, are critical in gleaning new insights (access the report here), needed to spur meaningful action to achieve scale in the Asian market. Arukah is proud to be featured alongside inspiring powerhouses such as Climeworks, Macrocarbon, Puro.earth, Terraformation and Carbon Negative Shot, who each present unique solutions to overcome barriers and unlock opportunities in the market.
This recognition highlights Arukah’s commitment to pioneering high-quality carbon removal projects that not only drive climate impact, but also create tangible financial opportunities for smallholder farmers in the Global South.
