remove, the European CDR accelerator, is expanding to Latin America. This is genuinely good news — and it’s been a while coming.
The Program
The LatAm Accelerator will run on the same two-stage model that’s worked in Europe and North America:
Foundations stage: An intensive deep-dive into the CDR ecosystem — LatAm-specific carbon markets, CDR policy, the buyer’s perspective, and MRV (monitoring, reporting, and verification) challenges. Startups refine their value proposition, then pitch on a Pitch Day that doubles as the selection gate for stage two.
Leap stage: Startups that show commercial traction advance to the global cohort. The incentive is concrete: remove offers a purchase agreement worth over $17,000 (€15,000) — and critically, no equity taken. For enablers, it offers a recoverable grant.
The full program runs eight months. The funding comes from the Milkywire Climate Transformation Fund, which has been a consistent backer of CDR ecosystem development.
Why Latin America, and Why Now
The CDR conversation has been dominated by the US and Europe. That’s partly because money flows from where capital is, and partly because the policy frameworks — the US Inflation Reduction Act, the EU Carbon Removal Certification Framework — have been the reference points.
But LatAm’s natural resources are arguably better suited to several high-potential CDR methods than either the US or Europe:
Biochar: Agricultural waste is abundant across Brazil, Argentina, Colombia, and beyond. Tropical biomass has high carbon density. The infrastructure for biomass handling already exists in agricultural economies. Latin America could be one of the most cost-competitive regions in the world for biochar production at scale.
Enhanced rock weathering (ERW): Tropical and subtropical soils tend to be more acidic and more mineralogically active than temperate soils — which means faster weathering reactions and more efficient carbon uptake. Brazil’s cerrado region and parts of Colombia have geology and soil conditions that researchers have flagged as highly suitable for ERW deployment.
Soil carbon and agroforestry: LatAm has some of the highest potential for land-based carbon sequestration, though permanence and additionality challenges remain. This is the area with the most methodology development still needed.
The Infrastructure Gap
What’s been missing in LatAm isn’t potential — it’s ecosystem infrastructure. Buyers don’t know which startups to trust. Startups don’t know which buyers are serious. Verifiers don’t have LatAm-specific methodologies. Policy frameworks are nascent.
This is exactly the gap that accelerators fill. Remove’s model isn’t just education — it’s network construction. Connecting founders to CDR buyers (who pay real money, not just advice), to verification bodies, to fundraising professionals. The purchase agreement in the Leap stage forces the question: can you actually deliver?
The Global CDR Story
CDR as a field has sometimes felt like a wealthy-world solution to a wealthy-world-driven problem. The best projects for scale and cost might actually be in the global south. LatAm accelerator programs start to change the flow of capital and attention.
Eight months. No equity. Real purchase commitment for those who qualify. If remove can replicate in LatAm what it’s built in Europe, the regional CDR ecosystem gets a genuine foundation.
Interested parties can register at remove.global/latam-accelerator.
Source: Carbon Herald