At one stage, the ASX plant nutrition company's shares were up as much as 20% to 20.5 cents.

Why is this ASX share charging higher?

Investors have been bidding this ASX share higher after it announced a partnership with banking giant Commonwealth Bank of Australia (ASX: CBA).

According to the release, the company has formed a strategic carbon alliance with Australia's largest bank to fund a large-scale soil carbon pilot program and to work together to expand the generation of Australian soil carbon credits in the future at scale.

RLF will sell 50,000 Australian soil carbon credit units (ACCUs) to be generated from a pilot program via a $1 million CBA forward payment agreement.

The bank will also be entitled to purchase additional ACCUs generated from the pilot program at a discount to a rate based on available pricing in the spot market at the time.

The release also notes that CBA, as a provider of banking and financial services to Australian farmers, has agreed to refer potential soil carbon projects that it considers would be suitable for the deployment of the technology for commercialisation.

CBA's Group Executive Institutional Banking and Markets, Andrew Hinchliff, commented:

Our clients tell us financing is the biggest barrier to mobilising carbon credit supply, with capex needed to support the development of emerging carbon sequestration methods and technologies. A thriving carbon market is a significant economic opportunity for Australia and will play a vital role in the path to net zero.

We want to play a leadership role in the development of this market and we look forward to collaborating with Australian innovators to support piloting and scaling carbon projects across the country. We are providing funding to RLF's pilot to support a promising and innovative agriculture technology that has the potential to generate large scale soil carbon.

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Shares in the S&P/ASX 200 Index (ASX: XJO) bank stock closed yesterday trading for $105. In late morning trade on Thursday, shares are swapping hands for $106.47, up 1.4%.

For some context, the ASX 200 is up 0.6% at this same time.

This comes amid news of another round of job cuts at the big four bank.

CBA share price lifts amid cost-cutting initiatives

The CBA share price is outperforming the benchmark index today amid news the bank will cut around 250 jobs from its rosters to help reduce operating costs.

According to unnamed sources, cited by The Australian Financial Review, the job cuts will primarily impact workers in CommBank's retail bank and technology unit.

A CBA spokesman said:

As part of our focus on business improvement, we regularly review the skills we need and how we are organised. That means from time to time some roles and work can change or may no longer be required.

The spokesman added that these types of decisions "are never easy nor are taken lightly". He said CBA will work with impacted employees "on finding opportunities and building skills to support them for another role in or outside the bank".

The CBA share price could find some mid-term support as the bank joins some of its big rivals in reducing staff and trimming costs, with management eyeing potential headwinds ahead from rising non-performing mortgage loans.

Many loans were written at or near record low interest rates in the two years following the outbreak of the pandemic. And an increasing amount of mortgage holders are feeling the pinch from the past year's rocketing interest rates.

What else are ASX 200 investors considering

In other news today, unlikely to have an immediate material impact on the CBA share price, CommBank reports that it has entered a strategic alliance with plant nutrition company RLF AgTech Ltd (ASX: RLF).

The agreement sees CBA financing a pilot program intended to generate soil carbon credits. The transaction is the latest milestone in the bank's strategy to accelerate the development of high-quality Australian carbon credits.

RLF AgTech has launched a soil carbon pilot program with Australian farmers for its Accumulating Carbon in Soil System (ACSS) technology, with the aim to generate Australian Carbon Credit Units (ACCUs).

Each ACCU represents one tonne of carbon dioxide equivalent.

CBA said it has pre-paid for the first ACCUs generated by the pilot program. The funding will help agribusiness operators with the upfront costs of registering and managing the carbon projects.

While that may not be setting a rocket under the CBA share price today, it's certainly boosting investor interest in RLF AgTech. The company's shares are up 9% today, having posted earlier intraday gains of more than 20%.

Commenting on the agreement, Andrew Hinchliff, CBA group executive, Institutional Banking and Markets said:

It will take innovation and collaboration to overcome the challenge of climate change. As the nation's largest bank, we have a role to play to support leading thinkers with the important work of commercialising that innovation, particularly when it comes to carbon markets.

CBA share price snapshot

With today's boost factored in, the CBA share price is up just over 7% in 12 months.

The post CBA share price marches higher amid job cuts and carbon credits appeared first on The Motley Fool Australia.