Tencent has announced the launch of the CarbonX Program 2.0, opening the worldwide application process and inviting interested businesses to submit a proposal by May 2025.
Following a successful first round of the program, Tencent is now launching the second edition, looking to provide financial support to early-stage technologies from a multimillion grant fund.
Keeping in line with Tencent’s “Tech for Good” mission, the CarbonX Program was created to catalyze the scaling of promising environmental solutions in the race to meet global climate targets on time.
In this edition, the program will support early-stage technologies centered around four vital pillars.
The first pillar envisions investments in carbon dioxide removal (CDR) technologies that are in their initial stages of development. The selected grant winners will also receive pilot projects for their solutions to be delivered in Kenya.
Long-duration energy storage (LDES) is another key focus of the CarbonX Program, where the reviewing team will be looking for renewable energy ratio scaling pathways in power grids. This domain of the program also includes 100-kilowatt pilot projects (more than six hours of energy storage) that will be established in the Maldives.
In the sector of carbon capture, utilization, and storage (CCUS), the program is looking to back solutions for decarbonizing the steel industry. Emerging technologies tackling this issue will get to install pilot projects in point-source CCUS applications in Serbia.
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Lastly, under the CarbonXmade (CCU) section, in an aim to shape a value chain for carbon, the program wants to support technologies that enable the incorporation of captured CO2 into the production of chemicals and consumer products via the CarbonXmade consortium.
Beyond a specialized reviewing team comprised of academia, industry, and finance experts, the CarbonX 2.0 Program is also facilitated by a vast network of ecosystem, industry, and consumer product partners, some of which also form the CarbonXmade consortium.
The program is powered by its investment partners, including Africa Climate Ventures, China Merchants Venture, CASSTAR, Happiness Capital, Copec WIND Ventures, HongShan Capital Group, Lightspeed China Partners, and MPCi.
