Barclays has signed a landmark agreement with UK-based climate technology company UNDO to permanently remove 6,538 tonnes of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. This represents the largest enhanced rock weathering (ERW) deal of its kind to date in Britain by a British offtaker, and a major step forward for the carbon removal sector.
Under the offtake, UNDO will spread finely crushed silicate rock across 10,000 acres of farmland as part of its project in Ontario, Canada. As the rock naturally weathers, it captures and stores CO₂ while also enriching soils, delivering both climate and agricultural benefits.
Commenting on Barclays’ first major carbon removal offtake, Daniel Hanna, Global Head of Sustainable and Transition Finance at Barclays, said: “Having reduced our Scope 1 and Scope 2 emissions by 95%, we are complementing our core net zero operations strategy by investing in permanent carbon removal. 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 through this landmark offtake.”
Carbon removal is not a replacement for rapid emissions reduction; it is a necessary complement. Even if emissions were to stop tomorrow, the world would still need to remove billions of tonnes of CO₂ already in the atmosphere to keep climate goals within reach.
Enhanced rock weathering accelerates a natural process that has regulated Earth’s climate for millions of years. When silicate rock is finely crushed and spread on farmland, it reacts with CO₂ in rainwater and soil, converting it into bicarbonate that is safely transported to the oceans and stored for hundreds of thousands of years.
The UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, IPCC, estimates that ERW, if deployed at scale, could remove up to four billion tonnes of CO₂ annually, equivalent to 40 percent of the global carbon removal needed by 2050.
Because ERW uses abundant natural minerals and existing farming infrastructure, it is one of the few solutions that can achieve gigatonne-scale removal while also supporting soil health, crop resilience, and farming communities.
This partnership complements Barclays’ net zero operations strategy, which is primarily focused on decarbonising the most emission-intensive areas of the bank’s operations. Since 2018, Barclays has achieved a 95% reduction in its Scope 1 and Scope 2 market-based absolute emissions, driven by a multi-year programme of real estate right-sizing, energy efficiency improvements, and a shift to renewable electricity sourcing.
In 2024, Barclays generated approximately half a billion pounds in revenues from sustainable and transition-related activity and invested £239 million into over 20 climate technology companies via its £500 million Barclays Climate Ventures programme.
By backing carbon removal with UNDO, Barclays is helping to expand a category of solutions that will be vital in achieving global climate goals.
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