Microsoft and Canada’s largest public company are tapping Deep Sky Labs to remove thousands of tonnes of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere over the next decade.
The Royal Bank of Canada acquired carbon removal credits from Montreal’s Deep Sky, which is the first commercial direct air capture project in Canada.
Deep Sky intends to facilitate the removal of 10,000 tonnes of CO2 from the atmosphere over a 10-year period with options to purchase an additional one million tonnes from Deep Sky’s pipeline of projects.
Damien Steel, chief executive officer of Deep Sky, says RBC recognizes “carbon removal’s important role in earth’s decarbonization.”
“In a fragmented market, Deep Sky Labs acts as a focal point for investors, suppliers, customers, and other partners who want a defined path to the best carbon removal technologies in the world,” the CEO continued. “This first group to invest catalytic capital in carbon removal gives us more confidence than ever that we can overcome humanity’s greatest challenge and reverse climate change.”
The transaction represents the first purchase of direct air capture credits by RBC Capital Markets’ Environmental Markets Solutions.
“Carbon removals is an emerging segment of the voluntary carbon markets, and new, technology-based solutions are needed to support its growth,” stated Sarah Thompson, Global Head of Sustainable Finance for RBC Capital Markets. “As a founding buyer, RBC is excited to learn alongside Deep Sky Labs and support their journey to develop large-scale [carbon dioxide removal] innovation.”
Eight direct air capture technologies, selected from over 100 options globally, will be deployed side-by-side at the Deep Sky Labs site. These DAC providers include Airhive, Avnos, Phlair (formerly Carbon Atlantis), Greenlyte, Mission Zero, NEG8 Carbon, Skyrenu, and Skytree.
“The Deep Sky Labs project will incubate technologies and expedite learning such that the industry can deepen and fast-track its understanding of what it takes to deploy gigaton solutions,” says Brian Marrs, Senior Director of Carbon Removal and Energy, Microsoft.
Carbon removal credits produced by Deep Sky projects will be traced from capture to storage software measuring metrics and validating performance data against “rigorous standards,” according to a statement from the clean-tech upstart.
The Royal Bank of Canada, an avid adopter of artificial intelligence, is Canada’s largest financial institution by market capitalization and employs more than 100,000 people worldwide who serve over 18 million clients globally.
Deep Sky was established 2022 by Hopper cofounders Frederic Lalonde and Joost Ouwerkerk.