Anthropic becomes first AI startup to join the Frontier carbon removal coalition

Anthropic 成为首家加入 Frontier 碳清除联盟的 AI 初创公司

Anthropic is joining Frontier, the carbon removal collective, contributing to a new $915 million tranche of funding and marking its arrival as the first AI startup to join the group. The new funding nearly doubles pledges to Frontier, bringing the total to $1.8 billion. So far, Frontier has contracted nearly $700 million across more than 50 projects to remove 1.8 million tons of carbon. Anthropic 宣布加入碳清除联盟 Frontier，并为该组织新一轮 9.15 亿美元的融资做出贡献，成为首家加入该联盟的 AI 初创公司。这笔新资金使 Frontier 的承诺总额翻了近一番，达到 18 亿美元。迄今为止，Frontier 已在 50 多个项目中投入了近 7 亿美元，旨在清除 180 万吨碳排放。

Companies that have pledged money to Frontier typically use the company’s carbon removal credits to reduce their publicly listed carbon footprints. The new funding will help bolster Frontier’s position in the carbon removal industry, but more notable are Anthropic’s pledges. While Google is a founding member, Anthropic is the first pure AI company to join the ranks. Its membership comes at a time when AI companies have been on an energy buying spree, not all of which has been squeaky clean. 向 Frontier 承诺出资的公司通常会利用其碳清除额度来降低公开披露的碳足迹。这笔新资金将有助于巩固 Frontier 在碳清除行业的地位，但更值得关注的是 Anthropic 的承诺。虽然谷歌是创始成员，但 Anthropic 是首家加入该联盟的纯 AI 公司。在 AI 公司大举采购能源（其中并非所有能源都完全清洁）的背景下，Anthropic 的加入显得尤为引人注目。

Joining Frontier is Anthropic’s first climate-related deal. The company has yet to produce a sustainability report, and it has said it favors an “all of the above” approach to energy, a statement which typically translates into large purchases of polluting power. But the move might signal changing attitudes within the company. 加入 Frontier 是 Anthropic 首笔与气候相关的交易。该公司尚未发布可持续发展报告，并曾表示倾向于采取“全方位”的能源策略，这一表态通常意味着会大量购买高污染能源。但此举可能预示着该公司内部态度的转变。

Frontier was founded by tech companies, including Stripe, Google, and Shopify, to help them fulfill their climate pledges. The founding companies, and others, face a dilemma: Many want to hit zero emissions in the next decade or two, but there are some emissions they can’t eliminate today, like air travel. But at the same time, carbon removal was, and still is, a nascent industry without large players that could remove the amount of carbon companies needed. Frontier 由 Stripe、谷歌和 Shopify 等科技公司创立，旨在帮助它们履行气候承诺。创始公司及其他企业面临着一个困境：许多公司希望在未来一二十年内实现零排放，但有些排放（如航空旅行）在目前还无法消除。与此同时，碳清除行业仍处于起步阶段，缺乏能够清除企业所需碳排放量的大型参与者。

Frontier vets carbon removal companies and signs contracts for those it thinks will be able to deliver. Carbon removal credits, like the kind supported by Frontier, let companies continue to emit some pollution. The credits can be subtracted from their carbon footprint, similar to how profits might counter debts on a balance sheet. Frontier vets projects, serving as a sort of shared resource for companies interested in carbon removal. Frontier 对碳清除公司进行审查，并与那些被认为有能力交付成果的公司签署合同。像 Frontier 支持的那类碳清除额度，允许企业继续排放部分污染物。这些额度可以从碳足迹中扣除，类似于资产负债表上用利润抵消债务。Frontier 通过审查项目，为有志于碳清除的企业提供了一种共享资源。

In the announcement of the new pledges, Frontier said that funding for future projects would come with a higher level of scrutiny. The organization said it will fund fewer projects, focusing on those that it thinks have the best chance at removing a gigaton — 1 billion metric tons — of CO2 or more annually. New contracts will run around eight to 10 years, Frontier said. 在宣布新承诺时，Frontier 表示未来项目的资金将受到更严格的审查。该组织称将减少资助的项目数量，专注于那些被认为最有潜力每年清除 10 亿公吨（即 1 吉吨）或更多二氧化碳的项目。Frontier 表示，新合同的期限将在 8 到 10 年左右。

Since its launch in 2022, Frontier has backed a range of carbon removal technologies over the years, including direct air capture, enhanced rock weathering, bio-oil, ocean antacids, and bioenergy with carbon removal and sequestration. Frontier’s shift from lots of smaller bets to fewer larger ones mimics what appears to be happening at Microsoft, which has been the largest buyer of carbon removal credits. 自 2022 年成立以来，Frontier 多年来支持了一系列碳清除技术，包括直接空气捕获、增强岩石风化、生物油、海洋抗酸剂以及生物能源与碳捕获和封存技术。Frontier 从大量小额投资转向少数大额投资，这似乎与微软的做法如出一辙，后者目前是碳清除额度的最大买家。

Though companies want the carbon removal market to grow and mature, they’re making it clear that they don’t want to underwrite it in perpetuity. For any new contract it signs, the carbon removal company must “show a path to government subsidy/support,” a Frontier spokesperson told TechCrunch. 尽管企业希望碳清除市场能够成长并成熟，但它们也明确表示不愿无限期地为其提供资金支持。Frontier 发言人告诉 TechCrunch，对于签署的任何新合同，碳清除公司必须“展示出获得政府补贴或支持的路径”。

The UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change has said that carbon dioxide removal technology will be necessary if the world is to reach net zero emissions, though few companies or consumers are interested in footing the bill. Like clean water, the problem is almost certain to fall on governments eventually. Frontier said it will contract as far out as 2040. It didn’t say what will happen after that, but it’s pretty clear they hope governments will have started to take the reins by then. And if they don’t? At the rate the climate is warming, we’ll have bigger problems on our hands. 联合国政府间气候变化专门委员会（IPCC）曾表示，如果世界要实现净零排放，二氧化碳清除技术将是必不可少的，尽管很少有公司或消费者愿意为此买单。就像清洁用水一样，这个问题最终几乎肯定会落到政府肩上。Frontier 表示其合同将持续到 2040 年。它没有说明此后会发生什么，但很明显，他们希望届时政府已经开始接手。如果政府不接手呢？按照目前的气候变暖速度，我们届时将面临更大的麻烦。