February 01, 2024
CDR Monthly Recap - January 2024
Introducing 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. The year has been off to a great start for CDR, and the developments in January have already set the pace for what will likely be a monumental year for the industry.
Read on to learn more about them below.
Partnerships and Agreements
Boston Consulting Group announced a strategic agreement with 1PointFive, including the purchase of 21,000 metric tons of CDR credits over three years.
1PointFive and Trafigura announced a Direct Air Capture CDR credit agreement. This is Trafigura's first transaction as part of the First Movers Coalition commitment, which is 50,000+ tons of durable CDR credits by 2030.
Deep Sky, a Montreal-based gigaton-scale carbon removal project developer and Skyrenu, a Quebec-based DAC company, partnered to deploy carbon removal technology in Canada. Skyrenu will install a DAC unit that can remove 50 tonnes of CO₂ per year.
Capture6, K-Water and BKT announced an agreement to build a facility in South Korea, that uniquely combines seawater desalination and carbon dioxide removal, a global first in water management decarbonization.
Carbfix and Kenya’s Great Carbon Valley signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to jointly explore the development of CO2 mineral storage in Kenya. The MOU was signed at COP28.
Financing
Captura, an ocean carbon removal tech company, raised $21.5 million as part of its Series A funding round. The round was led by investors such as Maersk Growth, Eni Next, and EDP Ventures.Parallel Carbon, which provides technology for Direct Air Capture (DAC) and clean Hydrogen, announced closing a $3.6 million Seed funding round during COP28 led by Aramco Ventures and participation from other existing investors.
Octavia Carbon, a climate solutions startup based in Kenya, has secured funding to develop its Direct Air Capture technology. The funding comes from Renew Capital, a firm that specializes in impact investing in Africa.
Policy and Research
The bill for Carbon Dioxide Removal Leadership Act was re-introduced in the U.S. Congress. The act, once passed, would require the U.S. DOE to procure up to 10 million tons of carbon removal by 2035.The first Trilogue negotiations to discuss the Carbon Removal Certification Framework (CRCF) began in the EU. Over 350 companies and organizations have signed a public letter calling for a method-neutral CRCF.
ETH Zurich researchers have discovered a new method of removing carbon using light instead of heat. This breakthrough could significantly reduce the cost of carbon dioxide removal, which is currently too expensive to implement at the necessary scale.
Ocean Visions, a nonprofit that aims to restore ocean health and stabilize climate change, released a new interactive database for marine carbon removal (mCDR) It includes MRV strategies, carbon dioxide sequestration, mCDR pathways, maps, and more learnings from their trials.
CDR.fyi Updates and Research
The team at CDR.fyi released a host of new tools and research for the durable CDR community in January, including:
- CDR Investors and Landscape: One of our most popular pieces in January was the list of CDR investors by pathway and stage - check it out here! We also published the 2023 Investment Landscape in Carbon Removal, helping CDR startups gain an overview of investment activity in carbon removal companies.
- 2024+ Market Outlook Summary Report: Reporting on the 2024+ Market Outlook Survey we conducted in late 2023, the Summary Report is full of insights from suppliers and purchasers on where the industry is headed in the short (2024), medium (2030), and long (2050) term.
- CDR.fyi Purchase Calculator: We started January with the launch of the. Developed in collaboration with Cole Caswell, this tool helps companies determine the amount of carbon removal required each year, considering a realistic scaling path and converting it into a corporate responsibility. Read the full announcement and background here.
- Showcase Your Company: We released a new feature on the CDR.fyi Portal that allows our partners to update their company information directly and have it reflected on the CDR.fyi website and carbon removal map. This new feature helps ensure accurate and current data is displayed on the company profile and the carbon removal map
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.