By Airplanes at Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport (DCA) in Arlington, Virginia, on Tuesday, November 21st, 2023. | Image: Haiyun Jiang / Bloomberg via Getty Images
American Airlines signed a deal to trap 10,000 tons of carbon dioxide underground. It’s part of the airline’s plans to limit the pollution causing climate change, and it marks the first major deal for the Bill Gates-backed startup Graphyte that’s developing cutting-edge technology to tackle the problem.
Similar startups are selling services to big brands that want to draw down some of the planet-heating emissions they release into the atmosphere. They’re developing technology that filters CO2 out of the air or seawater — equipment that’s so expensive that it hasn’t been able to scale enough to make a meaningful dent in carbon emissions.