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Over the past decade, there has been a growing push to address the threat of climate change. Consumers are increasingly opting for sustainable alternatives – electric cars, shoes made out of recycled materials, metal straws, reusable grocery bags – all of which have become widely available.

A range of greenhouse gas removal technologies may be necessary if we’re to reach Net Zero by 2050. In the second of our two-part geoengineering feature, Eoin Redahan looks to the sea, the sun, and mineral weathering, and at the ethical concerns such technologies raise.

Lithos works in the space of enhanced rock weathering, a subset of carbon removal that seeks to speed up the planet's natural carbon cycle. In this process, rain absorbs CO2 from the atmosphere, falls onto and weathers rocks and in doing so creates a bicarbonate solution that eventually finds its way into the ocean for permanent carbon sequestration.

Launched by Stripe this spring, Frontier has announced its first six project winners: AspiraDAC (a subsidiary of Corporate Carbon), Calcite-Origen (a collaboration between 8 Rivers and Origen), Lithos, RepAir, Travertine and Living Carbon.

An early-stage start-up is working to enhance Earth’s natural abilities to sequester carbon. Lithos Carbon is a company founded in 2022 that uses an enhanced rock weathering approach to remove carbon from the atmosphere.

A novel approach to carbon removal, a robust scientific background, and a clear path to scale is what Lithos (Greek for “rock”) is all about. The early-stage start-up is working on a promising carbon removal technology, called Enhanced Rock Weathering (ERW), across the US: The process uses natural crushed basalt (the most abundant volcanic rock on earth) as a catalyst for converting atmospheric CO₂ to dissolved inorganic carbon.

Frontier, the nearly $1 billion tech-backed effort to help fund early-stage carbon removal technology, has invested $2.4 million in six companies through its first pre-purchase agreements.

Just months after committing to spend $925 million on carbon dioxide removal, a collection of major tech companies has announced its first purchases. The group, operating under the banner of Frontier, announced it had purchased nearly 2,000 tons of CDR services from five companies. It's a small ripple in the CDR pond, but one Frontier hopes will turn into a wave to bring down the costs of removing carbon.

Spreading rock dust on farmland could suck billions of tonnes of carbon dioxide from the air every year, according to the first detailed global analysis of the technique.