TECH GIANTS INCLUDING MICROSOFT, META, Alphabet and Salesforce are pouring more money than ever into climate solutions designed to pull carbon dioxide directly from the air.
The multimillion-dollar investments are the latest moves by high-tech leaders to boost the small but growing field of carbon dioxide removal, or CDR, as they seek to meet ambitious climate goals while consuming mind-boggling amounts of energy.
"We need carbon removal as an insurance policy," Salesforce's lead on carbon removal, Jamila Yamani, told Newsweek. Salesforce recently announced $25 million for the CDR investment company Frontier to make sure carbon removal technology will be ready when needed.
"It's going to require early investment today in order for us to have it available to use later," Yamani said.
Other recent announcements included nearly $49 million in CDR purchases by Frontier on behalf of tech companies, and a pledge by Microsoft to buy millions of carbon removal credits for reforestation―a deal that the company called the world's largest such transaction to date.
The funding announced will support tree-planting projects in Latin America and a carbon-capture addition to a biomass energy facility in Sweden, demonstrating the broad range of CDR approaches that tech companies are backing.
Previously, tech companies have invested in some carbon removal machinery that seemed like the stuff of science fiction just a short while ago but has now grown to commercial application.
The Swiss company Climeworks used millions of dollars from tech companies to take its carbon removal technology from a lab experiment 15 years ago to the world's largest direct-air carbon removal facility unveiled in May.
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Denne historien er fra July 12 - 19, 2024 (Double Issue)-utgaven av Newsweek Europe.
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Falling for Romance
A new book, Nora Ephron at the Movies, celebrates the writer/director best known for her iconic rom-coms and strong female characters
Cracking the Norse Code
Walrus DNA has shown that Vikings were likely the first to have encountered Indigenous North Americans
Monumental Shift
The discovery of 165-million-year-old crystals Easter Island has upended the longheld notion of how the Earth's \"conveyor belt\" moves
'OUR FOREIGN POLICY AND DOMESTIC REFORMS ARE TWO SIDES OF THE SAME COIN'
It is a well-known fact across the globe that the North Korean regime is irrational and unpredictable, but we have been consistent in strengthening our defense posture against the threat from North Korea since the Korean War, and I believe that their conventional capability is much inferior to that of the Korean military.
'They Read My Eulogy As I Lay in an Open Grave'
Like Paris Hilton, Natasia Pelowski claims she was subjected to abuse at a teenage therapy program
Russian Economy Faces 'Burnout'
Vladimir Putin admits difficulties” as the country’s key interest rate reaches a historic high
China's 'Silent Chemical War'
The U.S. must investigate Beijing's role in the manufacturing of fentanyl that is killing Americans, says one mom whose daughter died after accidentally taking the illicit substance
HARSH HEADWINDS
President Yoon Suk Yeol's BATTLE to reform a South Korea beset with structural problems under the specter of an increasingly aggressive neighbor to THE NORTH
Bridget Everett
BRIDGET EVERETT NEVER THOUGHT SHE'D BE THE LEAD OF A TV SHOW. \"I come from the downtown world in New York, a cabaret singer, and these things just don't happen, you don't find yourself with three seasons of HBO.
Amber Ruffin
A LATE-NIGHT COMEDY SHOW ON CNN? YES, and it's a game show, too.
