Canadian company delivers North America's first direct air capture carbon credits

Royal Bank of Canada

29/06/2026 11:00

    * The credits come from carbon sequestered underground in
May
    * Customers are Microsoft and RBC
    * Deep Sky also has deals with TD Bank, Lufthansa and ENGIE

    By Amanda Stephenson
    CALGARY, June 29 (Reuters) - Canada's Deep Sky became the
first North American company to deliver verified carbon removal
credits from direct air capture technology, announcing on Monday
it provided credits to Microsoft  MSFT.O  and Royal Bank of
Canada  RY.TO .  
    DAC differs from the more established carbon capture and
storage technology, which filters out CO2 at industrial plants
and stores it before it reaches the atmosphere.  DAC removes
carbon from the air, cleaning up emissions that have already
occurred.
    "This shows Canada is building, is taking the risks, and it
puts us on the map for innovation in carbon removal," said Deep
Sky CEO Alex Petre in an interview.
The only other company that has generated DAC credits is
Climeworks, whose Iceland facility is the world's largest DAC
complex.
    While scientists have said DAC is critical to stabilizing
the climate, the technology is expensive and difficult to scale
up.
But high-quality, verified carbon removal credits are in demand
worldwide. Tech companies, many of whom have made climate
commitments but are producing increased greenhouse gas emissions
to power the AI data center boom, have collectively spent
hundreds of millions of dollars buying credits from carbon
capture and storage projects.
    "People really want this to work, because they continue to
sign contracts. However, very few projects have actually been
delivered," said Petre.
    Deep Sky's Alberta pilot facility, which began operations
last summer and is expected to capture 3,000 metric tons of CO2
annually, is designed to allow multiple DAC companies to deploy
and fine-tune their technologies.
    The credits, verified by London-based climate tech
certification company Isometric, are the result of Deep Sky's
first injection in May of 14 tons of carbon underground.
    Regular injections continue, and Microsoft and RBC will
receive credits quarterly.
    Deep Sky also has carbon credit deals with TD Bank,
Lufthansa and France's Engie. The companies have not disclosed
financial terms.
    Petre said once Deep Sky's Alberta test hub is fully
established, the company plans to develop a large-scale
commercial DAC project in Canada. 

(Reporting by Amanda Stephenson in Calgary
Editing by Rod Nickel)
((amanda.stephenson@thomsonreuters.com))