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🗞️ Driving the news: Barclays has signed its first large-scale carbon removal agreement with British climate tech firm UNDO, securing 6,538 tonnes of permanent carbon dioxide removal through enhanced rock weathering (ERW) on 10,000 acres of farmland in Ontario, Canada
• This marks the UK’s largest ERW deal to date and pioneers a pre-financing model linking institutional capital with nature-based carbon solutions
🔭 The context: Enhanced rock weathering is a nascent but promising negative emissions technology, involving the spreading of finely crushed silicate rock to accelerate natural CO₂ capture while enriching soil
• UNDO, an XPRIZE-winning startup, is positioning ERW as a gigatonne-scale solution
• For Barclays, the deal supports its net-zero strategy after already reducing its Scope 1 and 2 emissions by 95%
• It also reflects a strategic pivot in the financial sector from carbon offsets to direct offtake agreements for durable carbon removal
🌍 Why it matters for the planet: Durable carbon removals are increasingly seen as essential to meeting global climate goals, particularly for hard-to-abate sectors
• This deal supports scaling a verifiable, nature-based removal pathway while delivering agricultural co-benefits like improved soil health and crop yields
• It also offers a replicable financing model for early-stage carbon removal technologies, bridging the gap between supply constraints and institutional demand
⏭️ What's next: As regulatory and investor pressure intensifies on financial institutions to reduce financed emissions, more banks may follow Barclays in securing direct CDR contracts
• UNDO plans to expand ERW deployment across additional farming regions, and further pre-financed agreements could be announced in the coming year
• The deal may also influence future corporate procurement strategies in the voluntary carbon market, shifting preference toward high-durability, high-integrity removals
💬 One quote: “UNDO’s approach to enhanced rock weathering offers the potential for a scalable solution to permanent carbon removal, which is pioneering, and one we’re proud to support.” – Daniel Hanna, Global Head of Sustainable and Transition Finance, Barclays
📈 One stat: 6,538 tonnes of CO₂ will be permanently removed through enhanced rock weathering across 10,000 acres of Canadian farmland — the largest such contract by a UK institution to date
See on illuminem's Data Hub™ the sustainability performance of Barclays and its peers BNP Paribas, HSBC, and Standard Chartered Bank
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