Alphabet, Meta and others have teamed up to turbocharge the removal of carbon from the atmosphere. Nan Ransohoff, who heads the project, tells New Scientist why they’re betting on new technologies – and trying to avoid the pitfalls of carbon offsetting
A power station in North Yorkshire, UK
Shutterstock/Coatesy
Can the world’s technology and consulting giants turn carbon removal into a multibillion-dollar global industry? That is the question Nan Ransohoff, head of climate at payments firm Stripe, is trying to answer. She now also heads Frontier, an ambitious bid launched last month to use an approach borrowed from vaccine creation to turbocharge early stage companies taking carbon out of the atmosphere. Finding ways to do so is now considered vital for averting catastrophic climate change.
“We learned from the latest IPCC report …