On Friday 14th June Running Tide, a major carbon remover, sadly announced that they have started to wind down their operations. The stated reasons are two fold:
- Lack of demand on the voluntary carbon markets;
- Inability to secure financing;
As an early pioneer of the voluntary carbon removal market the the loss of Running Tide is unfortunate and may be a warning for other removal companies and the market as a whole. If we are unable to further the development of the removal industry we are unlikely to have the impact we need on the climate crisis.
Acknowledging Running Tide's achievements
Since their launch in 2017, Running Tide has:
- removed over 25,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere;
- raised over $50 million dollars from investors;
- pivoted from using macro algae to wood biomass to sink captured CO2;
- furthered the research, credibility and development of ocean based carbon removal;
Without their work there's a high chance the carbon removal industry wouldn't look the same as it does today.
How does that affect us and our customers?
Obviously we are removing the option to purchase carbon removal via Running Tide until we have a suitable replacement. We are already in talks with Seaweed Generation who are developing robots capable of sinking invasive seaweed [video] to the deep ocean. Their work earned them a spot on the prestigious "Best inventions of 2023" list from Time magazine however as they are not at commercial scale yet we have not signed an official removal partnership.
If you are one of our customers impacted by this you will hear from us shortly as we begin to learn more about if we get our full delivery with Running Tide and what replacement options we have available to you. If you have any questions or concerns we are happy to work with you to resolve them.
Looking to the future of ocean carbon removal
Controversy and critics
Ocean carbon removal - including Running Tide - is not removed from criticism. There are a few in the scientific community who warn that the technologies are not ready for deployment at scale claiming there could be consequences for ecosystems due to the vast scale required for them to be effective.
This is a valid concern and future pioneers in this area will need to also invest heavily - like Running Tide did - into scientific monitoring and reporting to ensure minimal environmental damage.
A thank you from us at Climacrux
Almost from our launch we have partnered with Running Tide and would like to publicly thank them for their professionalism and excellent work they have done for the broader carbon removal ecosystem.
Running Tide tried and we need more people to keep trying. Some - even the majority - may fail, but without pioneering companies and the support of buyers willing to take a risk we are guaranteed to go nowhere.
