With the impending issues that go with global warming, the world is now scrambling to find a perfect solution. If nothing is to be done about this, then the future may be doomed. That’s why tech companies are at the forefront of this issue.
Carbon emissions play the biggest role in global warming. Carbon, itself, is the harbinger of terror. It hastens the condition that brings forth a chain reaction that the world may not be ready for. But the good news is that we may have the technology to halt global warming in its tracks.
Right now, four of the biggest tech firms have collaborated and pooled a $1.2 billion fund. Their goal is to pull carbon out of the atmosphere with the use of a unique model. Hopefully, this technology will be able to prevent and halt 1.5°C of warming that’s taking place in the planet.
The money to be given is going to be fronted by companies who are considering the purchase of a security which guarantees that a certain amount of carbon will be removed from the atmosphere. However, instead of bidding up prices for existing methods available to capture carbon, Frontier promises to fund additional methods needed.
The whole effort is set up by the big companies: Meta (Facebook), Alphabet (Google), Shopify, and Stripe. The fund pooled together is called Frontier, and they go by their own motto: Build and We Will Buy. Frontier is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Stripe, bit the organization will also be funded by the tens of thousands of businesses who are set to purchase carbon removal via Stripe Climate. With the amount collected, Frontier has become the world’s biggest coalition of carbon removal purchasers made via funding and membership.
The large fund will go and build an eight-year, $925 million commitment. They want to accelerate the development of permanent carbon removal technologies. This is done through the aggregation of demand from buyers who are looking into offsetting the carbon emissions that come from their supply chain. This will be done before the distribution of demand among suppliers. This means that firms with proven technology to pull carbon from the air are set to be involved.
Frontier is managed by McKinsey Sustainability. They will hone in to find solutions that are permanent. They want one that is able to store carbon for more than a thousand years. They also want these solutions to be affordable at less than $100 per ton of carbon. Moreover, these should be verifiable, don’t rely on arable land, and can remove carbon that’s already found in the atmosphere instead of relying on the prevention of carbon from entering.
“Frontier aims to send a strong demand signal to researchers, entrepreneurs, and investors that there is a market for carbon removal,” Alphabet shared in the document they recently released. The following are specifications stated:
- Frontier is a nine-year commitment that’s set to accelerate the development of permanent carbon removal technologies by being able to guarantee the future demand.
- Advance market commitments were originally piloted for vaccine development; this is, in fact, the first time the model is being used scale carbon removal.
Frontier works to conduct due diligence and facilitate carbon removal purchases on behalf of the buyers, in two forms:
1. For early-stage carbon removal suppliers piloting new technologies, the buyers will enter into low-volume prepurchase agreements.
2. For growth-stage suppliers scaling their technologies, they will facilitate offtake agreements between individual buyers and suppliers. The agreements made promise to purchase future tons of carbon removal if and when these will be delivered to enable suppliers to secure financing to scale their deployments. When tons of CO2 are taken out from the atmosphere, the carbon removal companies then get paid. The tons that have been removed are then reissued to buyers.
Because of the recent report made by the IPCC about the deficiency of progress made on carbon-cutting goals, McKinsey Sustainability joined forces with Frontier as well. The overall goal is to support of development of a carbon removal technology. This will be done by offering pro-bono advisory support to carbon removal startups and businesses that are joining them in the initiative.
Right now, they know that carbon can be pulled from the air through several methods. Some are seen to be more effective than others. Then there are also those that are more scalable. Among the many methods and strategies involved, they have come across giant fans which suck up CO2, separate it from oxygen, and then deposit it deep underground. This will also help make vodka, which comes from ethanol that is created with the CO2 present in the air.
There are also strategies that trap carbon in building materials such as concrete made by a Richard Branson-backed startup. Once these captured, they are converted into lifeforms such as algae before they are turned into household products.
With the methods discovered, companies are helpful of the future of the planet. All they really need to do is collaborate in order to find the best technology that serves the planet’s demands the best.
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