Green tech firm signs £10m Azerbaijan MOU at COP29

A Lancashire company has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with the Azerbaijan Investment Company in a potential “game-changing” £10m deal to develop its carbon capture technology.

Carbonbit Technologies, based in Blackburn, signed the MOU at the COP29 global gathering in the Azerbaijan capital Baku.

The business, co-founded by chief executive Philip Hargreaves, who is from Lytham, is developing carbon capture utilisation and storage (CCUS) solutions.

Speaking from Baku, where he is a member of an eight-strong Lancashire delegation spearheaded by the county’s low carbon innovation agency RedCAT, Philip said the signing of the MOU was the culmination of more than two years’ work.

He told Lancashire Business View the aim was to secure “significant investment” to take its technological solutions, which involve direct air capture and Carbon Capture Utilisation and Storage (CCUS), forward to the commercialisation phase.

Philip said: “It is potentially huge for us. We have got some game-changing technologies and this is potentially a game-changing relationship.

“As we move forward as a Lancashire business, we want to develop a supply chain in and around the county as much as we can.”

Philip said the aim was also to feed back skills and experience into Azerbaijan with the aim of developing it as a central Asian hub for the technology.

The Azerbaijan Investment Company was established to support business development in the non-oil sector of the country’s economy

East Lancashire Chamber of Commerce chief executive Miranda Barker, who also chairs RedCAT, is part of the delegation in Baku. She said: “In Lancashire we have always known we are absolute experts at making things.

“This is yet another globally significant market that our wonderful Lancashire manufacturers are getting into.

“Carbonbit technologies is leading the way with climate technology and global scale investments and hopefully, through RedCAT, there is more to come.”

RedCAT is looking to work in partnership with a leading global funding scheme to support the county’s green technology innovators.

Desmos Capital Partners, established by former UK Energy Minister and net zero review chair, Chris Skidmore, has announced it is establishing new regional centres in Paris, Amsterdam, Johannesburg and Toronto.

The announcement was made as he spoke at a COP British Chambers of Commerce (BCC) event in Baku, Azerbaijan, chaired by Miranda.

Miranda said: “Developing and delivering fully commercialised low carbon technologies is a global endeavour – and as such the funding must work without borders and constraints.

“We, through our low carbon innovation agency RedCAT, are delighted to work in partnership with Desmos, and to bring our fast-commercialising low carbon innovators to an international base of funding expertise.

"RedCAT want to be part of the intelligence in driving the understanding of how to develop the funding market the sector really needs.”

Chris Skidmore told the event: “Desmos is here to help and scale up companies who have proven technologies that can provide those solutions- get in contact if we can be of help, we want to hear from you.”

Desmos’ latest expansion plans aim at establishing the firm as a leading global sustainable investment bank, specialising in supporting green and sustainable technologies across emerging markets, with future plans to also expand into the US in 2025.

Chris Skidmore said: “Since announcing the creation of Desmos, I’ve been taken aback by the level of support but also by the tremendous demand from companies focused on the technologies and solutions of tomorrow to provide a sustainable future. They require guidance and support to deliver their scale up ambitions.”