Carbon removal group boosts spending, adds Anthropic
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Frontier, the group of big companies trying to jump-start carbon removal, just unveiled $915 million in new purchase plans and added AI heavyweight Anthropic to its roster.
Why it matters: New or accelerated ways of pulling CO2 from the atmosphere could become a weapon against global warming — but massive scale-up is required to move the needle.
- Today's announcement nearly doubles the group's pledged contracting with companies trying to commercialize carbon-removal technologies.
- Expanded finance and the addition of Anthropic are "great signals for momentum in the field, and for the continued obedience to the idea that carbon removal is part of any rigorous climate program," Hannah Bebbington Valori, head of Frontier, tells Axios.
Driving the news: Frontier, which launched in 2022, is also refining its approach after brokering purchasing and finance agreements with over 50 startups.
- It will now focus on a "narrower portfolio of companies where we have high conviction the technology has gigaton-scale potential," the group announced today, referring to a billion tons.
- That means 10-15 "focused bets," with purchase deals in the 8-10 year range, that help commercial-scale plans get across the finish line.
Yes, but: Frontier is making crystal clear that for removal to reach a billion or more tons per year, governments worldwide must eventually be the main driver.
- The theory of the case: corporate buyers provide a needed bridge that helps prove and "de-risk" methods that make them ripe for public investment.
- Going forward, Frontier says, every deal must have a "clear line of sight to government-driven demand" by the time purchase contracts expire.
"The primary difference here is, how do we make sure that we are using our limited resources to buy from projects in a way that is going to pull forward the demand from governments that is ultimately going to take this market to scale," Valori said.
Catch up quick: Frontier — whose founding members include Google, Stripe, and Meta (which has since left) — launched with a pledge to facilitate $1 billion in carbon-removal purchases by 2030.
- It vets startups and brokers contracting agreements between carbon-removal companies and members, who include Shopify, Salesforce, JPMorgan Chase, H&M and others.
- Some are binding contracts for removal over various time spans, totaling $670 million to date.
- There are also smaller "pre-purchase" deals for companies piloting removal methods.
Zoom out: Carbon dioxide removal encompasses many technologies, including direct air capture, enhanced rock weathering, and ocean alkalinity enhancement, which boosts marine CO2 uptake.
- Today, these provide a tiny amount of removal compared to restoring and creating forests.
What we're watching: Frontier's "line of sight" standard for government-driven demand has implications for U.S. policy.
- Today, the federal tax credit for CO2 removal only applies to direct air capture projects, Valori said.
- Valori said that Frontier could still support other U.S. approaches if projects help build momentum for broader government support.
- "We are ... equally excited about doing deals that will bring into being new policies that don't exist today."
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