Anthropic Joins Carbon Removal Coalition, AI Startups Start Counting Emissions

Logo Anthropic. The AI company joined Frontier and became the first AI startup to support funding for carbon removal projects through the coalition. (Photo: China Daily)

JAKARTA - Anthropic is taking a step back in the spotlight on the huge energy needs of the AI industry. The creator of the chatbot Claude joined Frontier, a coalition of technology companies funding carbon removal projects.

According to a report by TechCrunch, quoted Thursday, June 18, Anthropic joined the new funding of 915 million US dollars for Frontier. The funds have almost doubled Frontier's total funding commitment to 1.8 billion US dollars.

This step is important because Anthropic is the first AI startup to join Frontier. Google is already a founding member. However, Anthropic is the first pure AI company to join the ranks.

The issue is not small. AI companies are hunting for large amounts of energy to run data centers. Not all electricity purchased comes from clean sources. This is where Anthropic's decision comes into focus.

So far, Frontier has signed contracts worth nearly $700 million for more than 50 carbon removal projects. Its goal is to remove 1.8 million tons of carbon from the atmosphere.

Companies that fund Frontier typically use carbon offset credits to reduce the carbon footprint they report publicly.

For Anthropic, this is its first climate deal. The company has not released a sustainability report. Anthropic has also expressed support for the all of the above approach to energy, a term that usually means using a variety of electricity sources, including those that still produce pollution.

Therefore, Anthropic's entry into Frontier could be an early signal that the AI industry is starting to calculate the climate impact of its growth.

Frontier was founded by a number of technology companies, including Stripe, Google, and Shopify. Its goal is to help companies meet their climate pledges.

Many companies want to achieve zero emissions in the next decade or two. However, there are still emissions that are difficult to remove, such as air travel. On the other hand, the carbon removal industry is still young and does not have many big players.

Frontier is involved in assessing carbon removal companies. They then sign contracts with projects that are judged to have the opportunity to meet the target.

Carbon offset credits work like a carbon footprint reducer. Companies can still produce some emissions, then offset them with credits from projects that absorb or remove carbon.

TechCrunch also reported that Frontier will be more selective in choosing its next projects. The organization will fund fewer projects, but with a larger size. The focus is on projects that are considered capable of removing 1 gigaton, or 1 billion metric tons of CO2, per year.

Frontier's new contract will run for about 8 to 10 years.

Since its launch in 2022, Frontier has supported various carbon removal technologies. Among them are direct air capture, accelerated rock weathering, bio-oil, marine antacids, and bioenergy with carbon removal and storage.

Direct air capture is a technology for sucking carbon directly from the air. Accelerated weathering uses certain minerals to bind CO2. Bioenergy with carbon storage utilizes biomass, then captures and stores the resulting emissions.

Frontier's shift from many small projects to fewer large ones is similar to Microsoft's move. The company has been the largest buyer of carbon removal credits.

However, technology companies do not seem to want to finance this market forever. A Frontier spokesperson told TechCrunch, every new contract must show a path to subsidies or government support.

The United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change or IPCC states that carbon removal technology is needed if the world wants to achieve net zero emissions.

However, not many companies or consumers are willing to pay the cost. Like clean water, this matter will almost certainly fall to the government in the end.

Frontier said it would sign the contract until 2040. The organization did not explain what would happen after that. However, with the current rate of climate warming, the need for the government's role will be increasingly difficult to avoid.