Carbon removal technologies are becoming increasingly important for companies
Once considered a diversion for the critical work of cutting emissions, carbon removal projects are now seen as a necessary step to hit key climate change targets.
Carbon removal technologies are becoming increasingly important for companies, particularly for tech giants locked in a fierce battle to become the leader in artificial intelligence.
Once considered a diversion for the critical work of cutting emissions, carbon removal projects that extract and sequester carbon dioxide emissions from the atmosphere — such as direct air capture facilities like the technology that Knoxville-based Holocene unveiled a month ago (see teknovation.biz article here) or reforestation efforts — are now seen as a necessary step to hit key climate change targets.
Frontier Fund, a consortium of investors that includes Alphabet, JPMorgan, and Meta, has purchased contracts to remove more than 510,203 tons of carbon to date. The fund made one of its biggest commitments last year when it committed to paying $57.1 million to enhanced rock weathering startup Lithos Carbon to remove 154,000 tons of carbon from the atmosphere.
“All of these frontrunners in the carbon market, they’re not just interested in what they can buy today,” Henry Liu, Head of Engineering at Lithos Carbon, told Yahoo Finance. “They’re investing in the future of the carbon dioxide removal market. [With] the scale of the market, they recognize that investment is needed. So they’re looking to support pathways.”
That realization has led to a surge in investments in carbon removal start-ups. Direct air capture firms and those utilizing nature-based carbon removal methods raised more than $1 billion combined in 2023, according to PitchBook data. The number of carbon removal credits sold jumped more than 650 percent from the previous year, according to CDR.fyi.
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