INVESTIGATION: Investors poured millions into Earthbanc. Now its carbon project is being shutdown amidst legal battle
18 feb. 2026
17:31
Earthbanc, one of Europe’s fastest-growing climate tech startups, has secured tens of millions of dollars from investors and pharmaceutical giant AstraZeneca.
Now, Impact Loop can reveal that one of its flagship carbon credit projects in Kenya was recently shut down – amid an ongoing court case, allegations the project inflated its climate impact, and backlash from local communities.
Meanwhile, a sister project in India with ties to King Charles III appears to be plagued by similar issues, a months-long Impact Loop investigation has found.
Now, Impact Loop can reveal that one of its flagship carbon credit projects in Kenya was recently shut down – amid an ongoing court case, allegations the project inflated its climate impact, and backlash from local communities.
Meanwhile, a sister project in India with ties to King Charles III appears to be plagued by similar issues, a months-long Impact Loop investigation has found.
In December 2023, amidst the COP28 climate conference in Dubai, Swedish-British pharmaceutical giant AstraZeneca unveiled its plans to invest a whopping $400mn in tree-planting projects around the world.
Pascal Soriot, CEO of AstraZeneca, told the Guardian at the time that the company aimed to plant 200 million trees by 2030, an effort it estimated would remove around 30 million tonnes of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere – making the pharmaceutical giant “carbon negative”.