An emerging industry to remove carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere got a boost on Thursday with the launch of an initiative to raise another $100 million for those projects.
The federal government, RBC, BMO and Shopify are among the founding members of what’s being billed as the Advance Carbon Removal Coalition. The coalition says its members aim to mobilize $100 million in new support for Canadian carbon removal projects by 2030, on top of the $75 million they’ve contributed to date.
Speaking in Ottawa, Environment Minister Julie Dabrusin framed the projects as both an economic opportunity and a climate solution.
“There’s a real economic potential,” Dabrusin said at an industry event.
“And if developed responsibly, alongside deep emissions reductions, carbon removal could support many high-quality jobs in engineering, construction, clean industrial supply chains and strengthen Canadian competitiveness.”
Rather than capturing carbon from industrial smokestacks, carbon removal often refers to projects where CO2 is pulled directly from the air before it’s locked away in rocks. Companies then sell credits to those seeking to meet their climate commitments.
Microsoft signed a deal with Vancouver-based Arca last October for nearly 300,000 tonnes of carbon removal credits. Montreal-based Deep Sky followed that up with a deal in November to sell 10,000 tonnes of CO2 credits to buyers including Microsoft and RBC.
Those two companies are among the most prominent examples in Canada’s nascent but growing industry. There are 78 carbon removal companies in Canada pursuing 48 active and planned projects.
Canada has pledged to spend $10 million by 2030 on carbon removal to help the government meet its net-zero emissions goals. Dabrusin said it would help offset emissions that are the “hardest to eliminate” and cited Canada’s military fleet. National Defence accounts for about half of the government’s emissions.
Yet, critics suggest the energy-intensive and costly carbon removal projects offer only limited benefits and could divert attention from a rapid transition from fossil fuels to renewable energy.
Direct air capture projects range in cost from about $400 to $1,000 per tonne of CO2, according to a briefing note prepared for Energy and Natural Resources Minister Tim Hodgson last July. Canada emits about 690 million tonnes of CO2 annually.
Carbon removal “will play a real but limited and targeted role in years to come,” said Catherine Abreu, a Canadian climate policy expert.
“We won’t be helped by removing carbon from the atmosphere in the future if we’re not doing all we can to cut climate pollution in the present,” said Abreu, director of the International Climate Politics Hub. She resigned as an independent climate adviser to the federal government in December in the aftermath of a deal with Alberta to explore a new oil pipeline.
“We need a $100-million fund for switching on renewable energy and off of fossil fuels in Canada while we protect forests and other carbon-storing natural ecosystems,” Abreu said.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published March 5, 2026.
Jordan Omstead, The Canadian Press
