In a move confirming carbon management’s place in the climate-tech landscape, this week the Bezos Earth Fund unveiled a new financing initiative aimed at scaling up promising carbon dioxide removal and CCUS (carbon capture, utilization, and storage) ventures drawn from the global nomination pool for The Earthshot Prize.
Over the next three years, the initiative will distribute $4.8 million among 48 early-stage climate projects, with a particular eye on breakthrough technologies that can pull carbon out of the atmosphere or reuse it in industrial applications.
Among the first cohort of grantees that will receive $100,000 are several companies from the fast-growing carbon removal and CCUS sectors. Mati Carbon is deploying enhanced rock weathering across tropical farmlands to accelerate natural mineral reactions that draw CO2 from the air and lock it into stable carbonate forms, coupling soil health improvements with durable carbon removal. InPlanet is similarly focused on enhanced rock weathering in the tropics, issuing some of the first independently verified carbon removal credits for this nature-based approach.
On the utilization side, UP Catalyst is advancing a CCUS-adjacent process that turns captured carbon dioxide into climate-neutral carbon materials such as graphite, carbon nanotubes, and carbon black for use in batteries and industrial composites, effectively storing carbon in long-lived products while reducing reliance on fossil-derived materials.
These investments come at a time when the broader carbon removal ecosystem is facing funding and federal support in the U.S. but is gaining traction in the broader carbon markets. Global competitions, including the XPRIZE Carbon Removal challenge, have highlighted the potential of methods like enhanced weathering to permanently sequester CO2 while delivering co-benefits for agriculture and rural economies.
Meanwhile, CCUS is increasingly viewed by policymakers as essential to meeting mid-century net-zero targets, with governments in the UK and elsewhere consulting on frameworks to support its deployment across industrial sectors.
Read more: The Bezos Earth Fund And RMI Publish A Detailed Roadmap For Scaling CDR By 2050
