NextGen, the joint venture of South Pole and Mitsubishi Corporation that manages one of the largest diversified portfolios of permanent carbon dioxide removal (CDR), announced a new purchase from India-based Alt Carbon.
With this deal, the NextGen portfolio will acquire its first carbon credits from Asia, enriching its existing selection of projects based in Europe and the United States that include initiatives for direct air capture, bioenergy carbon capture and storage, high-temperature biochar, and mineralization.
Based in the West Bengal state of India, a region known for its prolific tea industry, Alt Carbon operates from the city of Darjeeling, where it specializes in enhanced rock weathering for carbon removal.
The company disperses basalt on the land located within tea plantations in the Himalayan foothills, where the humid air conditions enhance the crushed rock’s ability to absorb carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, storing it in the soil for thousands of years. This process also restores soil health, improving the work environment for local farmers.
By joining forces with NextGen, Alt Carbon hopes to not only reach a new market of global buyers for its carbon removal services but also to provide a competitive edge to the local farming industry, a sector threatened by the challenges brought on by global warming.
Beyond its enhanced rock weathering activities, Alt Carbon also intends to set up a groundbreaking geochemical laboratory in Darjeeling that would expedite an affordable process of quantification of its carbon removal efforts, enabling them to operate in a self-reliant local ecosystem.
According to Alt Carbon representatives, the laboratory would also provide employment opportunities for individuals with a postgraduate degree in science.
Relevant: New Map Shows Locations of Enhanced Rock Weathering Projects Worldwide
For NextGen, this partnership is another step forward in their mission of creating a scalable carbon removal market that will deliver offsets at affordable rates.
The platform, which typically supports projects that can achieve this goal at an average cost of $200/tonne, entered this partnership with Alt Carbon, recognizing their potential to scale in the near future and produce credits by 2025.
