As the pressure mounts for businesses to decarbonize, the carbon market is expected to grow rapidly in the next five years, and with it the investment opportunity for engineered carbon removals.

In 2024 there was a 65 percent year-on-year increase in the number of businesses setting climate targets validated by the Science Based Targets initiative. With many more businesses expected to rely on carbon removals to achieve net zero, forecasts suggest the carbon removal market could grow to $1.2 trillion by 2050, according to McKinsey & Co.

More striking still, those forecasts predict the value of the carbon removals portion of the market could match or even outstrip that of carbon offsets in the next five years, according to MSCI. This is because carbon removals result in a direct decrease in atmospheric carbon, while offsets only avoid further emissions. Early adopters such as Google have abandoned carbon offsets and switched their investment into removals.

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