Helping new carbon removal solutions to scale
Many carbon removal technologies need funding long before large volumes of verified credits are available.
Climate Impact Partners helps companies support promising carbon removal projects at an earlier stage, providing capital that can help developers test, improve and scale their technology.
Our Accelerate CDR activity helps companies support emerging carbon removal technologies, including direct air capture projects such as Octavia Carbon and enhanced rock weathering initiatives such as UNDO, at a stage when developers are still building the systems, evidence and operating capacity needed to scale.
Why early funding matters
Emerging carbon removal projects often face significant costs before they can generate meaningful revenue from verified credits.
Early funding can help:
- Build and deploy carbon removal technology
- Generate the evidence needed for future verification
- Scale operations toward commercial carbon removal
By supporting projects at this early stage, businesses can help strengthen the pipeline of future carbon removal supply. This gives companies the opportunity to support exciting new and emerging technologies, gain valuable insights into the projects as well as advantaged access to credits when they need them most.
Supporting direct air capture in Kenya: Octavia Carbon
Octavia Carbon is developing direct air capture technology in Kenya, using the country’s renewable energy, Rift Valley geology and technical talent to remove CO₂ directly from the atmosphere and develop a permanent storage pathway.
Climate Impact Partners helped secure early-stage funding for additional reactors, geothermal integration, transmission to the storage site and improvements designed to increase system performance. This shows what technology deployment, infrastructure development and operational scale-up can mean in practice.
Scaling enhanced rock weathering: UNDO
UNDO removes carbon dioxide from the atmosphere through enhanced rock weathering.
The process involves spreading finely crushed silicate rock across agricultural land. Rainwater combined with CO2, naturally reacts with the silicate rocks to lock up CO2 over the long term. Enhanced rock weathering carries significant upfront costs. Rock must be sourced, processed, transported and spread across farmland, while field monitoring and measurement are needed to demonstrate and verify the carbon removed.
Early funding can support rock sourcing, processing and deployment, alongside the field monitoring, carbon measurement and verification systems needed to demonstrate removals. This helps enhanced rock weathering move from a promising scientific approach toward a scalable carbon removal solution.
From early support to future supply
Accelerate CDR is about supporting climate solutions before they are ready to deliver removals at scale.
Not every early-stage project will follow the same path, and seed funding does not include or guarantee future carbon credits. But early finance can help developers build evidence, improve systems, increase deployment and create a stronger foundation for future delivery. Verified credits, if they become available, would come later and depend on each project’s progress and verification.
Projects such as Octavia Carbon demonstrate how early-stage support can form one part of the journey towards a more mature carbon removal project.
Accelerate future carbon removal supply
Many of the carbon removals businesses will need in the future have to be supported years in advance.
Climate Impact Partners works with companies to identify credible opportunities to provide early funding, support technology and project development, and help strengthen future carbon removal supply by moving promising solutions closer to scale.
For companies following a science-based climate strategy, this can also contribute to wider Beyond Value Chain Mitigation activity, supporting climate action outside the value chain while continuing to reduce emissions within it.
