In a project called Frontier, Alphabet, McKinsey, Meta, Shopify, and Stripe have brought forward a $925 million advance market commitment to encourage and speed the development of technologies that can pull carbon dioxide from the air.
Frontier would buy permanent carbon removal from companies creating such solutions over the next nine years, starting in 2022.
Such an assurance can send a green signal to researchers, entrepreneurs, and investors that there is a growing market for these technologies. The goal is to help create a net new carbon removal supply rather than competing over current strategies.
According to a major report from the United Nations’ Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, removing carbon dioxide is vital to meeting the Paris Agreement’s climate targets.
It is impossible to achieve net-zero carbon emissions without taking massive amounts of greenhouse gases out of the atmosphere using trees, technology, and other carbon sinks, the report says.
However, there is a downside to it like large land and water resource requirements or large energy requirements.
Early-stage suppliers piloting new technologies will be given funds by entering into low-volume pre-purchase agreements, and the company will facilitate advance purchases between individual buyers and suppliers who are ready to scale their technologies.
Suppliers will be allowed to secure financing to scale their deployments as these agreements agree to purchase future tons of carbon removal when they are delivered.
Factors like permanence, physical footprint, cost, capacity, and environmental justice will be considered for the decision.