Can a fusion energy pioneer backed by Google and Goldman Sachs help oil giant Occidental suck carbon from the air?

Nuclear fusion pioneer TAE Technologies has partnered with one of the world’s biggest polluters, Occidental Petroleum, over plans to use the limitless clean energy it hopes to generate from fusion to suck carbon dioxide out of the air.

TAE Technologies has signed a memorandum of understanding with Oxy Low Carbon Ventures, a subsidiary of US oil giant Occidental Petroleum, to explore using fusion energy for direct air capture.

California start-up TAE has attracted $1.2bn in funding from backers including Google, Goldman Sachs and another oil giant, Chevron, in its quest to commercialise fusion, the process that generates light and heat in stars.

“Collaborating with TAE Technologies is an opportunity to build on Occidental’s portfolio of clean power sources that can provide our direct air capture facilities with reliable, emissions-free energy,” said Oxy Low Carbon Ventures vice president Frank Koller.

“Fusion is a promising technology that advances our efforts to explore sustainable energy sources as we progress with commercializing large scale direct air capture as a critical climate solution.”

Occidental was named in a 2017 estimate as the forty-fourth largest polluter in history. It was also listed that year as one of 100 companies responsible for over 70% of global emissions.

Direct air capture is seen by some as a potentially crucial energy transition technology to help undo damage to the atmosphere.

However many climate campaigners view it with suspicion, arguing it is a costly irrelevance that is being used to greenwash the oil and gas industry.

Occidental CEO Vicki Hollub has previously said the oil major believes the technology will help “preserve our industry” and give it a “license to continue to operate for the 60, 70, 80 years that I think it’s going to be very much needed.”

Getting to net zero emissions is not “victory,” he said, as the world will keep heating up due to all the carbon already in the atmosphere, arguing fusion will be needed to help direct air capture “run the industrial revolution in reverse.”