By Lilian Nyakio
The world’s largest fossil fuel and cement companies should take financial responsibility for scaling up carbon removal technologies that could help combat climate change.
This is according to a new peer-reviewed study dubbed “The responsibility of investor-owned carbon majors to contribute to direct air carbon capture and storage investment.”
Co-authored by scientists from Climate Analytics, it argues that they should shoulder a substantial share of the costs needed to develop Direct Air Carbon Capture and Storage (DACCS). This is a technology designed to extract carbon dioxide directly from the atmosphere and store it permanently underground.
The study finds that 66 high-emitting fossil fuel companies are collectively responsible for between USD 40.5 billion and 77.6 billion of the total USD 250 billion investment required globally by 2070 to bring DACCS to commercial scale.
“Based on climate justice principles, the companies that contributed most to the climate crisis should also be responsible for investing in solutions,” said lead author Dalia Kellou of Climate Analytics. “This includes funding the early-stage investments needed to make carbon removal technologies viable.”
Why Carbon Removal Matters
To meet the global net-zero target by 2050, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) emphasizes that even after deep emissions cuts, permanent carbon removal will be crucial to balance residual emissions and eventually draw global temperatures down.
However, Kellou and her co-authors stress that technologies like DACCS must complement, not replace, rapid fossil fuel phaseouts.
“Carbon removal technologies cannot replace the urgent need to phase out fossil fuels,” Kellou added. “But they will be essential for balancing out residual emissions in the near- and mid-term, and to draw temperatures back down in the long term. Who better to fund this than those most responsible for the problem?”
While natural methods like forests and soils serve as carbon sinks, they offer only temporary storage and are vulnerable to degradation due to global warming. In contrast, DACCS offers a permanent solution but remains prohibitively expensive, currently costing hundreds of dollars per tonne of carbon dioxide removed.
The study estimates that USD 32 billion will be needed to move DACCS beyond its “formative phase” by 2040, before it can achieve cost competitiveness at roughly USD 100 per tonne of carbon dioxide.
Who Should Pay?
Applying the “polluter pays” principle, researchers distributed investment responsibilities among fossil fuel companies based on their historical and projected emissions. The top 10 emitters would bear just over half of the initial cost burden.
For the formative phase alone, the study estimates the following company contributions: ExxonMobil USD 2.8 billion, Shell USD 2.5 billion, BP USD 2.2 billion, Chevron USD 1.9 billion and Peabody Energy USD 1.8 billion.
“These companies are making billions in surplus profits,” said Kellou. “It is both fair and feasible that a portion of their windfall is used to fund technologies that will help clean up the damage they have caused.”
If global efforts align with a net-zero carbon dioxide by 2050 pathway, these companies would need to contribute around USD 41 billion. Without aggressive decarbonisation strategies, their combined responsibility could nearly double.
A Step Toward Climate Accountability
The study forms part of a special issue on Carbon Removal Policies and Ethics, organized by the CDR-PoEt consortium. It provides one of the clearest financial frameworks yet for assigning responsibility for climate mitigation costs to those most accountable for global emissions.
