The NextGen CDR Facility, a collaboration between the Swiss carbon finance consultant South Pole and the Japanese conglomerate Mitsubishi Corporation, has announced the purchase of 193,125 tonnes of carbon dioxide removals (CDRs) from three projects, producing the world's largest portfolio of CDRs. 

The purchase accounts for 25 percent of all CDRs purchased to date and provides more than 1,000 years of CO2 storage once delivered, according to a press release by South Pole publsihed last week. 

With an average target price of $200/t, NextGen intends to make permanent CDRs affordable for corporate buyers, enabling risk diversification through a portfolio approach. 

Numerous carbon removal technologies are represented in the portfolio, such as biomass carbon removal and storage, direct air capture and storage, improved weathering, high-temperature biochar, and product mineralization.

For an independent third-party assurance that the projects are of high environmental integrity and benefit local communities, all of the projects will be certified and validated in accordance with standards supported by the nonprofit International Carbon Reduction and Offset Alliance.

The early purchase will comprise CDRs from the world's largest DACS project, which is being developed by 1PointFive in Texas and is estimated to remove and permanently store up to 500,000t of CO2 per year once fully operational. 

Long-term storage of biogenic carbon removals 

Additionally, there will be CDRs from the largest tech carbon removal project in the world, Summit Carbon Solutions' $5.1 billion biomass carbon removal and storage project currently under construction in the Midwest of the United States.

This project will remove more than nine million tonnes of carbon dioxide annually through the capture, transportation, and long-term storage of biogenic carbon removals. 

The first high-tech biochar project (C1) by climate technology company Carbo Culture in Finland will also contribute carbon removal credits to the portfolio.

The acquisition shows observable corporate interest in several CDR technologies that provide long-term CO2 removal. 

By 2025, NextGen expects to have purchased over a million CDRs, all of which will have to meet requirements authorized by the independent ICROA in order to guarantee the caliber of the carbon project. 

Industry heavyweights Boston Consulting Group, LGT, Mitsui O.S.K. Lines, Swiss Re, and UBS are among NextGen's early customers, stated the South Pole press release.

With this purchase, NextGen's pledge will make it possible to finance a variety of cutting-edge CDR projects and technologies that now have a clear path to market, setting a high bar by ensuring independent certification of technical carbon reductions.

In order to achieve the 100-1,000 Gt of carbon removals by 2050 necessary to limit global warming below 1.5°C, it is urgently necessary to scale up efforts to remove carbon from the atmosphere, according to the IPCC Special Report "Global Warming of 1.5 °C." 

In addition to drastic decarbonization and emissions avoidance initiatives, such as forest conservation, we will need technical and natural solutions if we are to reach net zero GHG emissions by 2050.

The most recent State of Carbon Dioxide Removal estimates that, between now and 2030, an additional 1GT of additional removals will be required per year, nearly doubling the existing removals that are mostly reliant on natural processes.