Microsoft Is This Industry’s No. 1 Fan. Others Should Be, Too.
Will companies start following in the tech giant's footsteps?
Inside the Climeworks AG Mammoth carbon removal plant in Iceland on Wednesday, May 8, 2024.
Photographer: Heida Helgadottir/Bloomberg
Removing the carbon dioxide we’ve put into the atmosphere and storing it back on Earth might sound like a fantasy, but the sprouts of an entire industry aiming to do just that are emerging. There’s a problem, though: Who’s buying?
Thus far, upward of 13.5 million metric tons-worth of carbon dioxide removal (CDR) credits have been bought, and just 4.7% of those have been delivered, meaning CO2 has been removed and stored. That’s because most of the CDR technologies being sold — ranging from biochar and direct air capture (DAC) to ocean alkalinity enhancement and marine biomass sinking — are still in development or in the early stages of scaling.