Anthropic becomes first AI startup to join the Frontier carbon removal coalition

Though companies want the carbon removal market to grow and mature, they’re making it clear that they don’t want to underwrite it in perpetuity. For any new contract it signs, the carbon removal company must “show a path to government subsidy/support,” a Frontier spokesperson told TechCrunch. 

The UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change has said that carbon dioxide removal technology will be necessary 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.

It didn’t say what will happen after that, but it’s pretty clear they hope governments will have started to take the reins by then. Any if they don’t? At the rate the climate is warming, we’ll have bigger problems on our hands.