What Microsoft, Salesforce and more will do for carbon capture
Microsoft and Salesforce have earmarked 300 million euros for the development of carbon capture technologies. All the details
US technology companies Microsoft and Salesforce contributed $ 300 million to a US-led initiative to develop technologies for capturing carbon dioxide from the air.
THE FIRST MOVERS COALITION
The initiative, called the First Movers Coalition, was launched last year and has raised $ 10 billion in funding so far. Among other purposes, they will be used to stimulate the marketing of technologies for the decarbonisation of energy-intensive industrial sectors such as steel and cement, whose production processes consume large amounts of energy and cannot be powered by electricity, and heavy transport. (planes, ships, trucks).
The First Movers Coalition, in partnership with the World Economic Forum, encompasses over fifty companies and nine governments (India, Japan and the United Kingdom, for example). US climate envoy John Kerry said the initiative is "the strongest signal we can send to the market regarding the demand for clean alternatives" for hard-to-abbot sectors.
200 MILLION FROM ALPHABET (GOOGLE)
Microsoft and Salesforce's 300 million for carbon capture from the air was preceded, in April, by another 2 billion in funds. Also in April, Alphabet (Google's parent company) also announced $ 200 million for the development of this technology.
WHAT BILL GATES SAID
Bill Gates, founder of Microsoft and Breakthrough Energy, a coalition that aims to stimulate technologies for reducing emissions, defined the financial commitment of Microsoft and Salesforce as "a great milestone in a very difficult and long-term project" .
THE IMPORTANCE OF CARBON CAPTURE
The carbon capture industry is in fact still newborn, although technology is considered crucial for achieving the carbon neutrality objectives: the steel, aluminum, cement and chemical sectors are in fact difficult to decarbonise and responsible. for about one third of global greenhouse gas emissions.
Technologies for solar and wind energy and (in part) for batteries have now reached competitive prices that allow them to effectively offer themselves as alternatives to the use of fossil fuels. However, they are not applicable to energy-intensive sectors for technical reasons; CO2 capture, on the other hand, could reduce the carbon footprint of heavy industry and transport, but it is immature and too expensive to be deployed on a large scale.
This is a machine translation from Italian language of a post published on Start Magazine at the URL https://www.startmag.it/energia/cattura-carbonio-microsoft-salesforce/ on Fri, 10 Jun 2022 12:19:57 +0000.