In an effort to counteract the impact their pollution has on the climate, Google and other major companies have invested in a plan to trap carbon dioxide using rocks. They recently announced multi-million dollar deals with Terradot, a Sheryl Sandberg-backed startup that specializes in enhanced rock weathering (ERW).
The Deals
Google, H&M Group, and Salesforce are among the companies that collectively agreed to pay Terradot $27 million to remove 90,000 tons of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. The deals were brokered by Frontier, a carbon removal initiative led by Stripe, Google, Shopify, and McKinsey Sustainability.
Separately, Google announced its own deal to purchase an additional 200,000 tons of carbon removal from Terradot. While the company declined to disclose the price of this deal, it is estimated to be worth around $60 million if the cost per ton of CO2 captured is similar to the Frontier agreement ($300).
What is Enhanced Rock Weathering?
Enhanced rock weathering (ERW) attempts to accelerate a natural process that might otherwise take thousands of years. Rainfall naturally breaks down rocks, releasing calcium and magnesium and triggering a chemical reaction that traps CO2 in water as bicarbonate. Groundwater carrying this bicarbonate eventually makes its way to the ocean, where it is stored and kept out of the atmosphere.
How Does Terradot Work?
Terradot takes basalt from quarries in southern Brazil and transports it to nearby farms. Farmers can use the finely-ground basalt to manage the pH of their soil, and carbon removal is a bonus. The company has partnered with Brazil’s agricultural research agency (EMBRAPA) to use this strategy on over one million hectares of land.
Challenges Ahead
One of the main challenges facing Terradot is measuring how much CO2 they are actually able to trap. Google admits that it is difficult to measure precision, but believes that deploying ERW widely in the real world will help develop more rigorous measurement tools.
Terradot plans to take soil samples to assess how much CO2 is captured based on how the rock degrades over time. However, it is harder to determine how much calcium, magnesium, and bicarbonate makes its way to the ocean to permanently sequester CO2. Fertilizer in the soil can also potentially limit how much carbon is captured through ERW.
What are the Implications of Carbon Removal?
Experts say that carbon removal is no substitute for preventing greenhouse gas emissions in the first place. While it may be possible to counteract some of a company’s legacy of pollution, switching to clean energy is still the most effective way to stop climate change.
In fact, Google’s own carbon footprint has grown as it builds out energy-hungry AI data centers. The company has recently announced plans to develop advanced nuclear reactors and new solar and wind farms to power its data centers with carbon pollution-free electricity.
What Do Experts Say?
Dr. Jagoutz, a geologist at the University of California, Berkeley, says that while there is still uncertainty about how much CO2 can be sequestered through ERW, it is worth trying. "We don’t have the luxury to overthink it right now," he says.
Kanoff, CEO of Terradot, agrees that carbon removal should not be seen as a substitute for emissions reductions. "It’s very clear that this is not a substitute for emissions reductions at all… we need both of these tools," he says.
Conclusion
While the deals between Google and Terradot are significant, they represent only a small fraction of the 14.3 million metric tons of carbon dioxide pollution that Google was responsible for last year. Carbon removal is not a substitute for emissions reductions, but it can be an important tool in our efforts to combat climate change.
Related Articles
- Google’s future data centers will be built next to solar and wind farms
- Google inks nuclear deal for next-generation reactors
Comments
- Comment 1: "I think this is a step in the right direction, but we need to be realistic about how much carbon removal can actually achieve."
- Comment 2: "What are the long-term implications of using ERW on such a large scale?"
- Comment 3: "This is just a Band-Aid solution. We need to focus on reducing emissions and transitioning to clean energy."