Carbon-Removal Firms Have One Very Big Backer. That’s a Problem

Carbon-Removal Firms Have One Very Big Backer. That’s a Problem is a part of the sustainability in HPC discussion.

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Most of the money, however, is coming from just one buyer: Microsoft.¹

The accompanying plot is staggering because it visualizes the following:

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[Microsoft] has made more than two thirds of all carbon-removal purchases to date¹

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Companies such as Patch, CUR8 and CarbonX are working as a kind of market maker, linking corporate buyers with carbon project developers¹

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Removal credits, for projects that pull carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere, are seen as higher quality than credits for projects that simply reduce emissions by preventing their release, known as avoidance credits. Because of that, they are also much more expensive. While an avoidance credit for a project promoting, say, smokeless stoves can cost less than $20aton,aremovalcreditforthelatestdirect-aircapturetechnologycancostasmuchas$1,100 a ton, according to BloombergNEF. ¹

So a carbon removal credit is worth 55$\times$ more than a carbon avoidance credit.

Footnotes

1. Carbon-Removal Firms Have One Very Big Backer. That’s a Problem ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴