CDR defies cost pressures to win over corporate buyers

Growing list of offtake deals shows large corporations are ready to invest in expensive engineered carbon dioxide removal to support their net-zero goals

Demand for engineered carbon dioxide removal (CDR) is growing as big corporations back emerging technologies such as direct air capture (DAC) to help them decarbonise, despite large price premiums to nature-based solutions such as reforestation. Several large offtake deals have gone through since the start of 2023 in a breakthrough for the market as large corporate buyers, such as technology firm Microsoft and US bank JPMorgan Chase, pre-book CDRs from projects that are still under development. “Our landmark long-term agreement with Orsted for high-quality CDR support sends a strong demand signal to scale the market” Nakagawa, Microsoft. Developers of DAC and bioenergy with CCS (Becc