Global South

A provincial government in the Philippines just did something no one in Southeast Asia has done before: generated verified carbon credits from biochar production. Nueva Ecija’s “Project NuevaChar” converts rice husks — an agricultural waste product — into biochar. Puro.earth audited and validated the facility, confirming net CO₂ removal. In July 2025, Governor Aurelio Umali received the first carbon revenue remittance ever paid to a local government unit from biochar-based credits. ...

Kenya-based direct air capture company Octavia Carbon just locked in a new offtake agreement, facilitated by Carbon Direct. It’s the latest signal that demand for DAC credits from the Global South is real — and growing. Octavia’s Hummingbird pilot in the Kenyan Rift Valley has been running 24/5 since October 2025. Their Gen 2 system captures atmospheric CO₂ and stores it permanently underground through a partnership with carbon mineralization company Cella. They recently activated a cryogenic tank for liquid CO₂ storage — a meaningful technical milestone for any DAC operation, let alone one running in East Africa. ...

Boeing just signed one of the aviation sector’s largest carbon removal procurements ever: at least 40,000 tonnes of durable CDR through Carbonfuture, sourced from four biochar projects across the Global South. Full disclosure: Carbonfuture is a Carbon Drawdown Initiative portfolio company. We’ve been tracking their progress closely, and this deal validates exactly the kind of infrastructure the CDR market needs. Why This Matters Aviation is one of the hardest sectors to decarbonize. Planes can’t run on batteries (not yet, anyway), and sustainable aviation fuels are still scaling up. So for residual emissions — particularly Scope 3 business travel — durable carbon removal is the only honest answer. ...