Cool Effect has named the first recipients of the Cool Effect Catalyst, an award program worth up to $1 million that targets a financing bottleneck carbon dioxide removal (CDR) developers know well: projects that work technically but cannot lock in the capital to build and scale. The nonprofit accelerated a payout timeline that originally had awards beginning in 2027.

"Financial awards were supposed to begin in 2027, but we recognize the climate crisis cannot wait, and neither can the innovators developing solutions to address it," Cool Effect CEO Jodi Manning said in the announcement.

The program, announced in 2025, evaluated 68 applications over the past year against Cool Effect's due diligence framework, branded Carbon Done Correctly. Awards span three categories: durable carbon dioxide removal, superpollutant reduction, and nature-based solutions.

Octavia Carbon takes the durable CDR award

Kenya-based Octavia Carbon wins the durable CDR category. The company operates direct air capture technology in Africa and the Global South, removing atmospheric CO2 and enabling its permanent storage.

Cool Effect's award functions as early demand for future carbon removals rather than a conventional grant. The structure is designed to help Octavia prove its model, scale operations, and accelerate durable CDR capacity on the African continent. Octavia previously secured an offtake agreement through Carbon Direct, positioning the Catalyst funding as a follow-on demand signal for its removal deliveries.

The durable removals segment remains the most capital-intensive corner of the CDR market, and early-stage demand commitments like this one are frequently the instrument that lets pre-commercial developers anchor project finance.

Tradewater to build India's first compliant ODS destruction plant

The superpollutant reduction award goes to Tradewater, a Chicago-born company that specializes in collecting and destroying legacy refrigerants and other ozone-depleting substances.

Tradewater will direct the funding toward establishing India's first Montreal Protocol-compliant destruction facility for ozone-depleting substances. The infrastructure gap is stark: India currently has no compliant ODS destruction capacity, leaving stocks of legacy refrigerants at risk of venting to the atmosphere.

According to Cool Effect, the new permanent infrastructure is expected to destroy up to 325,000 tCO₂e annually across its initial projects. That figure positions the facility as a material addition to global superpollutant abatement capacity, given the high global warming potential of refrigerants such as CFCs and HCFCs relative to CO2.

The project also carries regulatory weight beyond India. Montreal Protocol parties have debated for years how to finance the destruction of existing ODS banks — stockpiled refrigerants that fall outside production phase-out controls. A compliant destruction pathway in one of the world's largest refrigerant markets gives compliance buyers and Article 5 country regulators a working template.

Nature-based category still open

The third category, nature-based solutions, has not yet produced a winner. Cool Effect reports two finalists identified, pending additional due diligence and site visits. The organization expects to announce that recipient in 2027.

For buyers of carbon credits, the staggered timeline matters. Durable removal and superpollutant credits now have named delivery counterparties, while nature-based supply from the Catalyst pipeline remains at least a year out.

The inaugural Catalyst round also signals where a $1 million program can move markets: not through volume, but through first-of-kind infrastructure. Octavia's award addresses demand risk for African DAC; Tradewater's addresses a total absence of compliant destruction capacity in a country of 1.4 billion people.

What happens next hinges on two milestones: Octavia converting the demand commitment into scaled, verified removal deliveries, and Tradewater's Indian facility reaching operational status against its projected 325,000 tCO₂e annual throughput. The nature-based winner announcement in 2027 will close out the first Catalyst cycle — and determine whether Cool Effect renews the instrument for a second.