UK-based international banking group Standard Chartered will back a debt financing transaction for London-based carbon removal project developer UNDO, which was completed in collaboration with British Airways, CUR8, CFC and WTW, and is aimed at demonstrating a transaction structure enabling the scaling of finance for carbon dioxide removal (CDR) projects elsewhere.

UNDO, founded in 2022, develops carbon removal projects based on enhanced rock weathering. The company’s technology accelerates the natural geological process of weathering by spreading crushed silicate rock onto agricultural land, where plants and microbes in the soil speed up the weathering process, removing carbon dioxide, while simultaneously enriching soil with essential nutrients.

The process has the potential, according to the company, to scale rapidly to permanently remove billions of tonnes of carbon dioxide.

The transaction, according to the bank, will help overcome a significant barrier to scaling CDR projects by helping to unlock a new financing structure that separates the cost of a project from the sale of its credits and gives project developers financial flexibility, in addition to reducing risks relating to delivery.

“Enhanced rock weathering represents, one of the most robust carbon dioxide removal solutions available today because it is permanent, highly scalable and provides a host of co-benefits,” adds Jim Mann, UNDO founder and CEO. “Sectors like the aviation industry will require large amounts of high-quality carbon removal to meet their net-zero commitments.

“UNDO and the carbon removal market need many more progressive partnerships like this to scale and meet the Intergovernmental Panel for Climate Change’s carbon removal goal of 10 billion tonnes a year by 2050.”