Photo courtesy of Wikimedia Commons.
By Abby Wester ‘22
Staff Writer
New advancements have been made in carbon-capture technology, processes that trap carbon, a greenhouse gas that largely contributes to global warming and climate change, emissions at source and remove it from the atmosphere.
In March 2021, Shopify, the Canadian e-commerce company, announced its purchase of direct air capture from Carbon Engineering. According to a press release from Carbon Engineering, the service “allows customers to reserve capacity from a Carbon Engineering direct air capture … facility — providing the permanent removal of carbon emissions on their behalf.” Shopify is reserving 10,000 tonnes of carbon removal capacity from Carbon Engineering, making this the largest publicly announced corporate purchase of DAC.
The industrial-scale DAC facility is scheduled to start operations in 2024, as construction is still underway. While DAC can effectively remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, it requires gas and electricity to do so, which ultimately reduces the effectiveness of the technology. Critics argue that carbon capture technology should be a last-resort effort to remove carbon from the atmosphere and that individuals should focus on changing their lifestyles to reduce carbon dioxide emissions.