10:20 AM EST, 11/13/2024 (MT Newswires) -- Microsoft Corp. ( MSFT ) and Royal Bank of Canada ( RY ) have agreed to buy carbon dioxide removal credits from Canada's first commercial facility to suck carbon from the air, Bloomberg is reporting Wednesday.

The report noted pulling carbon from the atmosphere is increasingly important in limiting global warming to relatively safe levels. The world will likely need to take billions of tons of CO2 from the air per year by mid-century, yet current capacity is just a fraction of that. A wave of startups is attempting to address that using a range of techniques, including deploying machines that perform what's known as direct air capture (DAC).

"We need to prove that this stuff works. We need to prove that we can actually build the projects we say we're going to build, and we actually have to deliver credits to the customers who have, over the last couple of years, been making commitments to future supply," said Damien Steel, chief executive officer of Deep Sky. "If that supply doesn't start showing up soon, we as a market are in big trouble."

Wednesday's statement noted Microsoft ( MSFT ) and RBC agreed to purchase 10,000 tons of CO2 removal services over a 10-year period from Deep Sky, a Canadian project developer with a distinct approach to carbon removal: the company is convening multiple technologies at the same site, powered by a single energy source and funneling CO2 to the same storage well. Deep Sky is building a facility in Alberta that, upon completion, is expected to house eight DAC units, each designed and built by a different startup.

(Market Chatter news is derived from conversations with market professionals globally, and/or from other media sources. This information is believed to be from reliable sources but may include rumor and speculation. Accuracy is not guaranteed.)

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