United Will Suck Carbon From the Air Instead of Buying Offsets

United Airlines Inc. today pledged to reduce its greenhouse gas impact to zero by 2050 — a necessary step to to avoid climate catastrophe, scientists say — while walking away from a practice increasingly common among large global companies. “Carbon offsets,” or credits generated by forest conservation or other means, can be purchased in markets or privately to cancel out emissions. Chief Executive Officer Scott Kirby said the practice can’t scale up to solve the climate problem in the way many are expecting it to.

Instead, United’s multimillion-dollar investment in 1PointFive, Inc., a venture of Occidental Petroleum Corp. and Rusheen Capital Management, relies on what’s called direct-air capture, or facilities that draw CO₂ out of open air so that it can be disposed of underground. Carbon Engineering Ltd., a Vancouver company, developed the technology. United’s contribution to the initiative is expected to draw as much CO₂ out of the air every year as 40 million trees do. The project has been in the works since before the pandemic.