Skip to content Skip to Search
Skip navigation

Asset manager Offset8 invests in Indonesia carbon project

By Sarah Townsend
Abu Dhabi's Offset8 is investing in Indonesia to fund biochar, which is made from burning agricultural waste and used for carbon sequestration Offset8
Abu Dhabi's Offset8 is investing in Indonesia to fund biochar, which is made from burning agricultural waste and used for carbon sequestration
  • Offset8 investing in Indonesia offsets
  • Appetite for carbon offsetting on the rise  
  • Project uses biochar from agricultural waste

Asset manager Offset8 Capital, which specialises in financing climate mitigation projects, has facilitated an undisclosed early-stage investment in a waste management scheme in Indonesia. 

The project, run by Singapore-based sustainable waste management company Sawa EcoSolutions and its Indonesian operating arm Legasi Alam Indonesia, is expected to generate around $50 million of carbon credits over the next 10 years, Offset8 said. 

Carbon offsetting, in which companies purchase credits in environmental projects to compensate for their own emissions, is increasingly being used as part of corporate sustainability strategies.

Offset8 set up operations in free zone Abu Dhabi Global Market last year. It said it has already received expressions of interest from several companies across the Mena region keen to invest in the Sawa project, and expects high demand. 

The project is a carbon offset scheme involving a charcoal-like substance called biochar, which is made by burning organic agricultural and forestry waste. It has a range of uses, including water treatment, land reclamation and carbon sequestration. 

Sawa aims to establish 100 biochar production facilities across Southeast Asia, which it says will remove 1 million tonnes of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere annually. 

The Indonesia project will be developed in multiple regions across the country, starting with Majalengka Regency in West Java. Offset8 plans to set up a local presence to support the project, and has agreed a profit-sharing arrangement with Sawa and the communities in which it will operate. 

Offset8 is a member of the UAE Carbon Alliance and ASEAN Alliance on Carbon Markets. It aims to develop carbon credit schemes in Southeast Asia and Africa – especially in mangrove restoration, reforestation and biochar – for companies in the Middle East and Asia to invest in.

Abu Dhabi Global Market expects more green finance companies like Offset8 to set up in the free zone, after it published a sustainable finance regulatory framework in July.

Latest articles

STC wants to consolidate the mobile tower market

STC approves PIF purchase of telecom company

Shareholders of Saudi telecom giant STC have approved plans to create a new telecommunications infrastructure company in which the Public Investment Fund will have a 51 percent stake valued at SAR8.7 billion ($2.3 billion).  Under the deal, the STC-owned Telecommunication Towers Co. Limited (Tawal) will become a PIF subsidiary through a merger with Golden Lattice […]

Flavio Cattaneo of Enel, of which Endesa is a subsidiary, and Mohamed Jameel Al Ramahi at the signing of the deal

Masdar buys stake in Spanish utilities company Endesa

The UAE’s state-owned clean energy company Masdar has agreed to acquire a minority stake in Spanish electric utility business Endesa to partner for 2.5 gigawatts (GW) of renewable energy assets in Spain. Under the agreement, subject to regulatory approval, Masdar will invest nearly $890 million to acquire a 49.99 percent stake in Endesa, with an […]

Person, Worker, Adult

Aramco and PIF invest in Saudi-Chinese steel venture

Saudi Aramco and the Public Investment Fund have doubled their investment in a steel plate joint venture with a Chinese company to $500 million. The two Saudi companies each own 25 percent shares in the new venture in Ras Al Khair industrial city, Bloomberg reported, quoting a statement published on the Chinese stock exchange. Chinese […]

Car, Transportation, Vehicle

Dubai Taxi to pay $43m dividend despite profit drop

Dubai Taxi Company, a subsidiary of the emirate’s transport regulator, has approved a dividend payout of AED159 million ($43 million) for the first half of 2024 despite a marginal 1 percent increase in net profit. Net earnings reached AED187.4 million in the first six months of the year, compared to AED186.3 million at the same […]