Varaha Achieves Asia’s First Registry-backed Enhanced Rock Weathering Carbon Credit Issuance

Gurugram-based Varaha has achieved Asia’s first-ever, registry-backed Enhanced Rock Weathering (ERW) carbon credit issuance, marking the third such issuance globally.

This milestone makes Varaha the world’s first company to secure verified carbon credit issuances from two distinct carbon removal pathways, positioning India and its smallholder farmers at the forefront of global climate innovation.

Founded in 2021 by Ankita Garg, Vishal Kuchanur, and Madhur Jain, Varaha is a climate-tech platform that offers businesses solutions to offset their carbon footprint by purchasing carbon credits.

It is worth noting that 12 months ago, Varaha was also the first project developer in India to issue registry-backed industrial biochar-based CDR credits, and has issued them 3 times since then.

ERW is one of the carbon capture strategies that accelerates the natural geological process of rock weathering to capture and permanently store atmospheric carbon dioxide.

It involves spreading finely crushed silicate rocks, such as basalt, on agricultural lands to increase their surface area and accelerate chemical reactions between the rocks, rainwater (which contains carbonic acid formed from atmospheric CO2), and soil.

This enhanced weathering process results in the formation of bicarbonate ions, which eventually form stable carbonate minerals like limestone, locking away carbon for thousands to millions of years.

Compared to natural rock weathering, which removes carbon from the atmosphere over millions of years, ERW fast-tracks this process to occur over years to decades. Besides carbon sequestration, ERW improves soil alkalinity, enhances crop yield, and reduces soil acidification, thereby benefiting agricultural productivity. 

Varaha is pioneering an ERW project in Khargone, Madhya Pradesh, where it works with smallholder cotton farmers. Certified under the Finland-based Puro Earth Standard, this issuance reinforces Varaha’s commitment to science-backed, transparent, and high-integrity carbon removals that deliver measurable impact for both people and the planet.

Earlier this year, Varaha signed a deal with Google to sell biochar carbon credits to help the tech giant achieve net-zero emissions across all its operations and value chains by 2030. 

Varaha was on the annual list of Change Started 11 Green Startups of the Year 2024.