UG Group, a company enhancing the voluntary carbon market through its blockchain-based trading platform for high-integrity, transparent, and scalable carbon solutions, today announced an agreement to list Gigablue’s initial 200,000 tons of ocean carbon removals through its FSA-registered Carbon Plant exchange.
Image Credit: UG Group
Gigablue, a leading innovator in marine carbon dioxide removal (mCDR), mimics natural ocean processes by utilizing advanced science to remove CO2 from the atmosphere for hundreds of thousands of years. The Microalgae Carbon Fixation and Sinking (MCFS) method, recently approved by the Puro.earth Advisory Board, enhances native phytoplankton growth and export (sinking) to the deep ocean, where it remains safely stored for centuries to millennia.
Through Carbon Plant, UG Group will provide a transparent and verifiable marketplace for Gigablue’s ocean-based carbon removal credits. Carbon Plant is deliberately designed and built to address the longstanding challenges of trust and quality in the Voluntary Carbon Market.
Built on NFT technologies and listing only data-evidenced credits, Carbon Plant’s trading platform creates certainty for buyers and sellers, enhanced through its futures offering, which allows project developers to bridge the funding gap between pilot validation and commercialization.
For UG Group, Gigablue is an ideal project developer for its FSA-registered Carbon Plant exchange, which is able to offer up to 10-year future contracts for data-driven, carefully validated credits. These credits work in tandem with the broader services UG Group offers to avoid carbon emissions by the intelligent design of renewable energy and energy efficiency projects.
Magnus Hammick, CEO, UG Group, said: “The world is seeing unprecedented investment in Net Zero solutions, but the science is also clear that we must remove carbon at a planetary scale. We are genuinely excited about the potential of Gigablue to play a key role in this critical task. And judging by initial interest, many buyers feel the same. We founded Carbon Plant to combine the certainty of governance with the capability to offer trading of future credits. By routing funding to high-quality projects, Carbon Plant can be a key part of the financial infrastructure the world needs to facilitate the solutions required.”
Ori Shaashua, Founder and CCO, Gigablue added: “MCFS represents the evolution of nature’s own carbon cycle into a verifiable system for climate action. Backed by Puro.earth’s validation, our methodology provides a level of measurability and durability rarely seen in ocean-based approaches. It takes inspiration from the ocean’s 3.5-billion-year process of carbon fixation and sinking, transforming it into a controlled, scalable, evidence-based, and responsibly managed solution for long-term carbon removal. Partnering with UG Group and Carbon Plant empowers us to deliver financially sustainable carbon removal to the hard-to-abate industries that need them most.”
Each MCFS project follows robust measurement, monitoring, reporting, and verification (MMRV) protocols using standard and custom in-situ practices. Every project also undergoes thorough site-specific environmental impact assessments, followed by on-site baseline data gathering, and monitoring throughout every stage of deployment to mitigate environmental risks, ensuring that the pathway is safe and even beneficial for marine ecosystems. Gigablue also works with local communities and relevant stakeholders to ensure that projects benefit and sustain the regions where it operates.
Gigablue’s model is closely aligned with the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals, particularly SDG 8 (Decent Work and Economic Growth); SDG 12 (Responsible Consumption and Production); SDG 13 (Climate Action); and SDG 14 (Life Below Water). It also indirectly aligns with SDG 9 (Industry, Innovation and Infrastructure) and SDG 17 (Partnerships for the Goals). In Aotearoa (New Zealand), Gigablue works in close communication with Maori, guided by Indigenous knowledge and values. The company’s approach is designed to create lasting benefits, from local job creation and investment to enduring community partnerships, while advancing shared goals like restoring ocean health.
Cherie Tirikatene Le Cheminant, Cultural Facilitator, Indigenous Development Advocate, Ngai Tahu, Ngati Mamoe, commented: “The ocean connects us all. When I joined Gigablue’s field operations, I saw first-hand that it’s not only iwi and indigenous communities who benefit, we're also employing local companies to make components and support the work. It’s really a whole economy. As iwi, these are the values we care about most: protecting land, caring for the ocean, and sustaining our people.”