CDR Monthly Recap - February 2024

CDR Monthly Recap - February 2024

We are back with another edition of the CDR Monthly Recap, a monthly round-up of some of the top news, developments, and market updates from the world of durable carbon removal. February was a great month for CDR, with the world’s first regulatory framework for CDR coming from the EU, and some large deals, funding rounds, and partnership announcements coming together to scale the industry ahead, along with a host of events in the field.

Read on to learn more about them below.

Partnerships and Agreements

Image source: Microsoft

Neustark and Microsoft made a new announcement for a multi-year deal for 27,600 tons of high-quality carbon dioxide removal over six years.

Bio-Logical recently announced a deal with Microsoft to supply 10,000 carbon removal credits. This deal is the biggest by an Africa-based CDR company and one of the biggest biochar deals ever made.

Carbon asset management platform Klimate.co announced a partnership with carbon removal project developer Carboneers to purchase 4,500 tons of CDR.

Carbonx Climate recently announced the purchase of 3,000 tons of CDR from Lithos Carbon. Recently, Carbonx also confirmed the facilitation of over $7 million of CDR purchases as part of its latest procurement round across 6 novel pathways.

Equatic has unveiled plans to build for world's largest ocean-based carbon removal plant in Singapore. When completed, the plant will remove around 100 kg of CO2 per day.

Carbonfuture recently announced a new partnership with Puro.earth, PYREG, and Syncraft to create a real-time IoT data and digital Monitoring, Reporting, and Verification (dMRV) system to track carbon removal projects.

Capture6 and Pilot Energy have announced a strategic partnership to pilot a decarbonization facility in Western Australia. Named “Project Wallaby”, it will integrate Capture6's water production and DAC technology with Mid West Clean Energy Project’s clean ammonia project, aiming for 1.2 million tonnes annually.

Financing

Image source: Avnos

Avnos, a Los Angeles-based DAC company, raised $36 million in Series A funding to scale its Hybrid Direct Air Capture (HDAC™) technology. NextEra Energy Resources, LLC led the investment round.

The Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) announced a $25 million gift from the chair of the Institution’s board of trustees, Paul Salem. The funding will help support research in new marine carbon dioxide removal (mCDR) projects.

Varaha, an Indian regenerative agriculture and carbon removal project developer, raised $8.7 million in Series A funding, led by RTP Global.

Clairity Technology, a California-based DAC startup, raised $6.75 million in seed funding. The funding round was co-led by Lowercarbon Capital and Initialized Capital.

The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) announced the launch of a $100 million fund to support projects that remove, store, and utilize carbon from the atmosphere. This supports the development of a commercially viable carbon dioxide removal industry in the U.S.

Policy and Research

Image source: Pexels, Dušan Cvetanović

The EU Council and European Parliament negotiators agreed upon establishing the Carbon Removal Certification Framework. It is the world’s first-of-its-kind certification and regulation plan for carbon removal.

The Smith School of Enterprise and the Environment - University of Oxford recently released the Revised Oxford Offsetting Principles, calling for major course correction in carbon markets and offsetting practices, thereby stating a strong emphasis on transition towards CDR offsetting to address residual emissions but also a shift towards removals with durable storage.

The Science Based Targets initiative (SBTi) recently released two new reports on Beyond Value Chain Mitigation (BVCM), which provide suggestions to support companies in the design and implementation of BVCM strategies and the barriers and incentives associated with it.

The Circular Carbon Network, an XPRIZE initiative, released a report titled “Circular Carbon Market Report” which dives deep into analysis of investment and growth trends of the circular carbon industry in 2023, with carbon removals as one of the key sections in it.

Puro.earth released its 2024 CDR Market Map which gives a comprehensive overview of the carbon removal market’s value chain, featuring various CDR actors across solutions, MRV, certification, governance, trading, ownership, and retirements.

Klimate published its first Carbon Removal Strategy Catalogue, which provides a comprehensive list of various methods for utilizing carbon removal strategies in the sustainability plans and climate goals for companies.

Leaderboard Updates

Over 127,000 tons of CDR were sold by suppliers in January alone. Listed below is the January leaderboard for top suppliers:

In February, just over 50,000 tons of CDR were sold by suppliers worldwide. Here is the list of top suppliers in February:

Check out the CDR.fyi Leaderboards to stay up to date with the top CDR actors by sales and deliveries.

Events round-up - February

Some of the notable events that happened in the CDR space in February:

One of the first events in February was a webinar discussing Luxembourg’s potential to lead Europe and the world in the emerging domain of carbon removal finance, organized by LUX-TEN.

Airminers held a webinar called DAC and Energy Systems assessing how energy systems can be anchored for Direct Air Capture (DAC) startups and their facilities. Find the recorded discussion here.

Carbonfuture convened a panel discussion: Accelerating the Future of Carbon Removal: Insights & Actions, discussing key trends in the carbon removal market, policy developments in the EU and US, tech innovation, and more. Catch up on the discussion in the recorded session here.

The Open Air Collective’s Episode 95 of This is CDR series featured our Co-founder, Robert Höglund, in which he discussed CDR.fyi's recently released 2023 Year in Review and other key CDR market developments. Catch up on the event recording here.

(YOUTUBE EMBED LINK BELOW)

GreenBiz organized a webinar titled Accelerating Climate Action with Diversified Carbon Removal Portfolios which brought to the fore various CDR technologies in place, different challenges and the role of diversified CDR portfolios, amongst others. Access the webcast recording here.

Circular Carbon Network convened a panel discussion, for a deep-dive on its 4th annual report on the circular carbon market. Alexander Rink (Co-founder, CDR.fyi) from our team, joined a panel that includes eminent leaders from CUR8, Carbon Removal Partners, and Carbon Business Council.

Check out the CDR Events Calendar to stay up to date with upcoming events in CDR,

CDR.fyi Updates and Research

The team at CDR.fyi released some new tools and research for the durable CDR community in February, including:

• CDR.fyi 2023 Year in Review: Our most popular piece this month was the CDR.fyi 2023 Year in Review. As one of the most comprehensive views on the state of durable carbon removal, the report uncovered insights and trends for a wide range of areas in the CDR market such as - purchasers, sellers, marketplaces/services, pricing, and investments.
• CDR Events Calendar: Earlier this month, we released the CDR Events Calendar, a community-sourced calendar specifically designed for events related to CDR worldwide, with options for anyone to submit events and to view and access events in multiple ways. Read the full announcement here.

Stay connected

For more updates from us, such as This Week in CDR and CDR Soundbytes, do follow us on LinkedIn. We'd love to hear from you! Reach out to us anytime with suggestions or comments at team@cdr.fyi.

Join over 200 companies and sign up for the Portal to gain durable CDR market insights, showcase your company’s profile and progress, and get on the CDR map: get started here!