\n<\/p>\n
Anthropic is joining Frontier, the carbon removal collective, contributing to a new $915 million tranche of funding and marking its arrival as the first AI startup to join the group.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The new funding nearly doubles pledges to Frontier<\/a>, bringing the total to $1.8 billion. So far, Frontier has contracted nearly $700 million across more than 50 projects to remove 1.8 million tons of carbon. Companies that have pledged money to Frontier typically use the company\u2019s carbon removal credits to reduce their publicly listed carbon footprints.<\/p>\n The new funding will help bolster Frontier\u2019s position in the carbon removal industry, but more notable are Anthropic\u2019s pledges. While Google is a founding member, Anthropic is the first pure AI company to join the ranks. Its membership comes at a time when AI companies have been on an energy buying spree, not all<\/a> of which<\/a> has been squeaky clean.\u00a0<\/p>\n Joining Frontier is Anthropic\u2019s first climate-related deal. The company has yet to produce a sustainability report, and it has said<\/a> it favors an \u201call of the above\u201d approach to energy, a statement which typically translates into large purchases of polluting power. But the move might signal changing attitudes within the company. <\/p>\n Frontier was founded by tech companies, including Stripe, Google, and Shopify, to help them fulfill their climate pledges. The founding companies, and others, face a dilemma: many want to hit zero emissions in the next decade or two, but there are some emissions they can\u2019t eliminate today, like air travel. But at the same time, carbon removal was, and still is, a nascent industry without large players that could remove the amount of carbon companies needed. Frontier vets carbon removal companies and signs contracts for those it thinks will be able to deliver.<\/p>\n Carbon removal credits, like the kind supported by Frontier, let companies continue to emit some pollution. The credits can be subtracted from their carbon footprint, similar to how profits might counter debts on a balance sheet. Frontier vets projects, serving as a sort of shared resource for companies interested in carbon removal.<\/p>\n In the announcement of the new pledges, Frontier said that funding for future projects would come with a higher level of scrutiny. The organization said it will fund fewer projects, focusing on those that it thinks have the best chance at removing a gigaton \u2014\u00a01 billion metric tons \u2014 of CO2<\/sub> or more annually. New contracts will run around eight to ten years, Frontier said.<\/p>\n Since its launch in 2022, Frontier has backed a range of carbon removal technologies over the years, including direct air capture<\/a>, enhanced rock weathering<\/a>, bio-oil<\/a>, ocean antacids<\/a>, and bioenergy with carbon removal and sequestration<\/a>.<\/p>\n Frontier\u2019s shift from lots of smaller bets to fewer larger ones mimics what appears to be happening at Microsoft<\/a>, which has been the largest buyer of carbon removal credits.<\/p>\n Though companies want the carbon removal market to grow and mature, they\u2019re making it clear that they don\u2019t want to underwrite it in perpetuity. For any new contract it signs, the carbon removal company must \u201cshow a path to government subsidy\/support,\u201d a Frontier spokesperson told TechCrunch.\u00a0<\/p>\n The UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change has said that carbon dioxide removal technology will be necessary<\/a> if the world is to reach net zero emissions, though few companies or consumers are interested in footing the bill. Like clean water, the problem is almost certain to fall on governments eventually. Frontier said it will contract as far out as 2040. <\/p>\n It didn\u2019t say what will happen after that, but it\u2019s pretty clear they hope governments will have started to take the reins by then. Any if they don\u2019t? At the rate the climate is warming<\/a>, we\u2019ll have bigger problems on our hands.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n When you purchase through links in our articles, we may earn a small commission<\/a>. This doesn\u2019t affect our editorial independence.<\/em><\/p>\n