How Frontier works
Frontier is an advance market commitment (AMC) that aims to accelerate the development of carbon removal technologies by guaranteeing future demand for them. The goal is to send a strong demand signal to researchers, entrepreneurs, and investors that there is a growing market for these technologies.
Importantly, Frontier aims to grow global supply by helping the most promising carbon removal projects deliver, rather than compete over what exists today. In practice, its team of technical and commercial experts facilitates purchases from high-potential carbon removal companies on behalf of buyers. There are a variety of ways that buyers can participate in Frontier as a part of their climate program.
The concept of an AMC is borrowed from vaccine development and was piloted a decade ago. The first AMC accelerated the development of pneumococcal vaccines for low-income countries, saving an estimated 700,000 lives.
While the market dynamics of carbon removal and vaccines are not identical, they face similar challenges: uncertainty about long-term demand and unproven technologies. AMCs have the power to send a strong and immediate demand signal without picking winning technologies at the start.
Overview of how Frontier works
Illustrative only
Focusing on scalable, permanent solutions
We look for permanent carbon removal solutions that have the potential to be low-cost and high-volume in the future, even if they’re not today. Specifically, Frontier will focus on technologies that meet the following criteria:
| Criteria | Description |
|---|---|
| Durability | Stores carbon permanently (>1,000 years) |
| Physical footprint | Takes advantage of carbon sinks and sources that do not compete for arable land |
| Cost | Has a path to being affordable at scale (<$100 per ton) |
| Capacity | Has a path to being a meaningful part of the carbon removal solution portfolio (>0.5 gigatons per year) |
| Net negativity | Maximizes net removal of atmospheric carbon dioxide |
| Additionality | Results in net new carbon removed, rather than taking credit for removal that was already going to occur |
| Verifiability | Has a path to using scientifically rigorous and transparent methods for monitoring and verification |
| Safety & regulatory | Is working towards the highest standards of safety, compliance and local environmental outcomes; actively mitigates risks and negative environmental and other externalities on an ongoing basis |
Learn more about Frontier
Hear from scientists, entrepreneurs, and economists working on carbon removal.
Carbon removal needs a bold assist
To avoid the worst effects of climate change, most climate models agree it won’t be enough to just reduce emissions. We’ll also need to remove gigatons of carbon dioxide already in the atmosphere.
Carbon removal has made significant progress over the past few years. Hundreds of companies are being built, and tens of thousands of tons have been delivered. But the field is still nowhere near the scale required.
We need a gigaton-scale portfolio of permanent carbon removal solutions, and the market to get them there. An AMC gives the industry the confidence to keep building, and to do so with urgency.
Path to limit global temperature increase to 1.5°C
Limit global temperature increase to:
Historical emissions~1.5°C path~2°C path~3°C (Current path)
Net CO₂ emissions (GtCO₂/yr)
50403020100-10-20
Year
1980199020002010202020302040205020602070208020902100
Carbon emissionsCarbon removalNet CO₂ emissionsCurrent path
Carbon removal needed to limit global temperature increase to 1.5°C
Who we are
60+
Technical reviewers
Our network of top technical experts help us evaluate the most promising approaches.
11
Members and partners
A growing list of companies are joining Frontier to buy permanent carbon removal.
6
Advisors
We’re advised by a multidisciplinary group of industry experts.
Learn more
Q&A
How many tons of removal will Frontier members buy?
We don’t know yet. Frontier will target technologies that are high quality and have the greatest long-term potential, rather than what is cheap today. For that reason, we don’t know in advance how many tons we’ll be able to buy, or what the price per ton will be. Tons contracted and delivered to date are tracked on our dashboard.
Do buyers get a return?
No. Frontier will facilitate purchases of carbon removal on behalf of buyers. It won’t make or facilitate equity investments at this time.
Can additional companies buy through Frontier?
Yes, we welcome new companies to participate in Frontier. Learn about your options to participate.
How is Frontier governed?
Frontier is a public benefit LLC wholly owned by Stripe LLC. It is run by a dedicated team of technical and commercial experts, led by Hannah Bebbington Valori, on behalf of buyers. Frontier founders serve on the Board, which oversees the high-level objectives of Frontier’s activities. Frontier is also advised by a multidisciplinary group of industry experts.
Citations
- Global Carbon Project. FF&I Emissions: Gilfillan, D., Marland, G., Boden, T. and Andres, R.: Global, Regional, and National Fossil-Fuel CO₂ Emissions, available at: https://energy.appstate.edu/CDIAC, last access: 27 September 2019. Land-use change emissions: Average of two bookkeeping models: Houghton, R. A. and Nassikas, A. A.: Global and regional fluxes of carbon from land use and land cover change 1850-2015, Global Biogeochemical Cycles, 31, 456-472, 2017; Hansis, E., Davis, S. J., and Pongratz, J.: Relevance of methodological choices for accounting of land use change carbon fluxes, Global Biogeochemical Cycles, 29, 1230-1246, 2015.
- Van Vuuren, D. P., O'Neill, B. C., Tebaldi, C., Sanderson, B. M., Chini, L. P., Friedlingstein, P., Hasegawa, T., Riahi, K., Govindasamy, B., Bauer, N., Eyring, V., Fall, C. M. N., Frieler, K., Gidden, M. J., Gohar, L. K., Högner, A., Jones, A. D., Kikstra, J., King, A., Knutti, R., Kriegler, E., Lawrence, P., Lennard, C., Lowe, J., Mathison, C., Mehmood, S., Nicholls, Z., Prado, L. F., Zhang, Q., Rose, S. K., Ruane, A. C., Sandstad, M., Schleussner, C.-F., Seferian, R., Sillmann, J., Smith, C., Sörensson, A. A., Panickal, S., Tachiiri, K., Vaughan, N., Vishwanathan, S. S., Yokohata, T., Zecchetto, M., and Ziehn, T.: The Scenario Model Intercomparison Project for CMIP7 (ScenarioMIP-CMIP7), Geosci. Model Dev., 19, 2627–2656, https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-19-2627-2026, 2026.
- Hausfather, Z., & Peters, G. P. (2020). Emissions – the ‘business as usual’ story is misleading. Nature. https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-020-00177-3
- Peters, G. (2018, September 4). Stylised pathways to “well below 2°C.” CICERO. https://cicero.oslo.no/en/articles/stylised-pathways-to-well-below-2c