Key Takeaways
- Cool Effect, a Bay Area nonprofit and carbon market leader, has partnered with Mitti Labs to offer the climate technology company's methane reduction carbon credits to Cool Effect's global network of corporate and individual buyers.
- Mitti Labs supports farmers in adopting Alternate Wetting and Drying (AWD), an irrigation technique that can reduce water use by up to 40% and methane emissions by up to 50% without compromising rice yields, and has already partnered with more than 70,000 farmers across six states in India.
- The project is expected to generate meaningful co-benefits, including increased income for smallholder farmers and conservation of an estimated 25 billion litres of water in water-stressed regions of India.
- Mitti Labs uses a NASA-supported soil-to-sky dMRV system combining in-situ ground-level methane measurements with remote sensing technology, capable of monitoring irrigation practices on plots below one hectare in near real-time.
- Mitti Labs targets 2 million credits issued annually by 2028, with rice cultivation accounting for approximately 12% of global methane output and consuming roughly 30% of the world's freshwater supply.
Cool Effect, a Bay Area nonprofit focused on high-integrity carbon projects and superpollutant climate action, has announced a new partnership with Mitti Labs, a Bengaluru and New York-based climate technology company that reduces methane emissions from rice cultivation. Through the partnership, Cool Effect will offer Mitti Labs' methane reduction carbon credits to its global network of corporate and individual buyers, expanding its superpollutant portfolio to include rice methane alongside ozone-depleting substances (ODS) and landfill gas.
Mitti Labs and Cool Effect: What the Partnership Delivers
Mitti Labs supports smallholder rice farmers in adopting Alternate Wetting and Drying (AWD), an irrigation technique that reduces methane emissions by up to 50% and water consumption by up to 40% without yield loss. The organisation has partnered with more than 70,000 farmers across six states in India. In addition to verified methane reductions, the project is expected to generate co-benefits including increased farmer incomes and the conservation of an estimated 25 billion litres of water in water-stressed regions of India.
“We're proud to welcome Mitti Labs to our portfolio. Their credits represent a new frontier in high-integrity climate action, delivering permanent methane reductions from rice cultivation while also driving meaningful co-benefits for water conservation and smallholder farmer incomes. This is exactly the kind of climate solution we believe in,” said Jodi Manning, CEO of Cool Effect.
Mitti Labs' dMRV Technology and Scale Ambitions
To underpin the integrity of its carbon credits, Mitti Labs uses a soil-to-sky digital measurement, reporting, and verification (dMRV) system developed in part with the support of NASA. The platform combines rigorous in-situ ground-level methane measurements with remote sensing technology, enabling near real-time monitoring of emissions reductions across millions of rice fields, including plots below one hectare in size. Mitti Labs targets 2 million credits issued annually by 2028.
“Three years after our launch, we have now demonstrated that rice, a key staple for half of humanity, which is also a major guzzler of water and emitter of powerful GHG gases, can be turned into a powerful vehicle for climate action. We could not dream of a better initial partner than Cool Effect to bring our high-integrity, dMRV-verified credits to the market,” said Xavi Laguarta, co-founder of Mitti Labs.
Rice Cultivation, Methane, and the Carbon Market Context
Rice farming occupies approximately 150 million hectares in Asia and accounts for roughly 12% of global methane output, while also consuming approximately 30% of the world's freshwater supply. Cool Effect has positioned itself as a leader in superpollutant mitigation: between 2024 and 2025, 64% of all credits purchased through the platform addressed superpollutants, with the organisation purchasing 3,365,616 tonnes of superpollutant credits and directing over $36 million to project partners. The Mitti Labs partnership adds a third scalable superpollutant category — rice methane — to Cool Effect's ODS and landfill gas portfolio.
“High-quality climate solutions require both strong science and real-world applicability. Mitti Labs' approach shows how innovative monitoring combined with farmer-centered implementation can achieve meaningful emissions reductions in practice,” said Johanna Depenthal, PhD, Director of Project Research at Cool Effect.
