Japan’s All Nippon Airways (ANA) announced today an agreement to purchase 30,000 carbon dioxide removal (CDR) credits from energy company Occidental’s (Oxy), carbon capture, utilization and sequestration platform subsidiary, 1PointFive.

The deal follows the announcement last year by Oxy and 1PointFive of plans to build the world’s largest to date direct air capture (DAC) plant, “Stratos,” in the Texas Permian Basin, with capacity to capture up to 500,000 metric tons of carbon dioxide per year at launch, and the potential to scale up to 1 million tons. The new plant is anticipated to be operational in mid-2025.

DAC technology, listed by the IEA as a key carbon removal option in the transition to a net-zero energy system, extracts CO2 directly from the atmosphere for use as a raw material or permanently removed when combined with storage. According to last year’s IPCC climate change mitigation study, scenarios that limit warming to 1.5°C include carbon dioxide removal methods scaling to billions of tons of removal annually over the coming decades, with DAC positioned to potentially account for a significant portion of the total.

Michael Avery, President of 1PointFive, said:

“Direct Air Capture is a vital and scalable carbon removal technology that is necessary to help society achieve net zero. We are proud that 1PointFive is able to support a leading airline like ANA in their purchase of our high-quality carbon removal credits to advance their climate strategy. The aviation industry can uniquely benefit from DAC as a pathway to removing carbon emissions securely, practically and on a large-scale.”

Under the new agreement, 1PointFive’s first with an airline, ANA will purchase 10,000 metric tonnes of CDR credits per year for three years enabled by Stratos, beginning in 2025. ANA has set a goal to achieve carbon neutrality in 2050, with its climate transition strategy focused on emissions reductions through operational and infrastructure improvements, sustainable aviation fuel, and removing residual emissions through Direct Air Capture.

Shinichi Inoue, President and CEO of ANA, said:

“Reaching our goal of carbon neutrality is one of the key priorities for ANA, and we are actively diversifying our methods to pursue sustainability. As we continue to review and invest in sustainable and innovative technologies and processes that help further our mission, we look forward to seeing the positive impact that partnering with 1PointFive brings to our airline.”