Frontier coalition makes $US80 million carbon removal purchase

Members of the Frontier coalition – including Google, H&M Group and Salesforce – have signed an US$80 million offtake agreement with carbon removal firms CO280 and CREW.

Under the agreement, the two firms will remove 296,378 tonnes of CO2 from the atmosphere on behalf of Frontier by 2030, through biomass carbon removal and wastewater treatment technologies.

The Frontier coalition was founded in 2023 by Stripe, Google’s parent company Alphabet, Shopify, Meta and McKinsey to accelerate demand in carbon removal solutions and support the development of this market – which will be essential to offset the tech sector’s growing AI-related emissions.

Frontier bets on two different carbon removal technologies

CO280 partners with pulp and paper companies to remove CO2 produced in the manufacturing of pulp and paper, and Frontier members will pay it US$48.0 million to remove 224,500 tonnes of CO2 between 2028 and 2030.

CREW works with wastewater treatment plants to integrate carbon removal into existing treatment processes, by adding alkaline minerals to tanks, which react with and capture CO2. It will receive US$32.1 million from Frontier to remove 71,878 tonnes of CO2 between 2025 and 2030.

Hannah Bebbington, Head of Deployment at Frontier said: “Carbon removal isn’t just about developing entirely new technologies from the lab, but also building on existing industrial expertise and infrastructure. CO280 and CREW show how we can flip the switch on carbon removal in industrial processes, enabling big scale, fast.”

Carbon removals gain traction

Carbon removals have received growing attention in recent months, with firms like British Airways, Morgan Stanley and BCG investing millions in emerging technologies that capture CO2 from industrial processes or even directly from the air.

The global market for carbon dioxide removal credits is expected to reach up to US$100 billion a year between 2030 and 2035 (from just US$2.7 billion in 2023), according to a report by consultancy firm Oliver Wyman. 

According to tracking platform CDR.fyi, around US$3 billion has been spent on nearly 12.5 million tonnes of carbon dioxide removals so far, bringing CDR credits’ average price to around US$246 per tonne.