Climate Vault, a nonprofit begun by a University of Chicago (UChicago) team, has set its sights on curbing carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions by purchasing carbon permits from the cap-and-trade market on behalf of corporations and organizations.

The team led by Michael Greenstone founded Climate Vault to aid in reducing CO2 emissions. Greenstone, a professor at the Energy Policy Institute, formerly was President Obama’s chief economic adviser, a role in which he oversaw the estimations for social costs of U.S. carbon reduction.

The organization is working to create an ecosystem for CO2 removal, aka CDR, technologies. The system would incentivize innovation in technologies to make CDR affordable. At its launch, Climate Vault is initially aiming to reduce more than 200,000 metric...