Tencent awards $30 million to 16 decarbonisation teams at London Climate Action Week
Chinese technology company Tencent announced 16 winners of its CarbonX 2.0 programme at an event co-hosted with TED at the London Science Museum on 24 June 2026, distributing nearly US$30 million in catalytic funding to early-stage climate technology teams spanning direct air capture, carbon capture and storage in steel production, carbon utilisation, and long-duration energy storage.
The announcement was made during London Climate Action Week 2026 and drew from a competitive pool of 660 applications submitted across 54 countries and regions. A panel of expert judges narrowed the field to 50 finalists before selecting 16 winners. Ten of those were assigned to four named technology tracks, each receiving approximately US$2 million alongside access to Tencent’s technical networks, expert ecosystem, and opportunities to pilot their solutions in real industrial environments. The remaining six winners received tailored support including assistance with measurement, reporting, and verification frameworks, carbon credit procurement commitments, and green premium subsidy mechanisms.
The four core technology tracks funded under CarbonX 2.0 are: carbon dioxide removal (CDR), with active pilots running in Kenya; carbon capture utilisation and storage for the steel industry, with pilots in China and Serbia; carbon utilisation, through a sub-track labelled CarbonXmade; and long-duration energy storage, with pilots planned in the Maldives. Winning projects include approaches ranging from geothermal-powered CO₂ capture and geological storage to water-based organic flow batteries and plastics manufactured from captured CO₂ emissions.
Kenya featured prominently among the geographic distribution of winners. Nairobi-based Octavia Carbon, described as the first direct air capture company in the Global South, and Cella Mineral Storage, which provides geological CO₂ storage infrastructure, were both selected in the CDR core track. The two companies have been collaborating on Project Hummingbird, a modular DAC and geological storage facility in Kenya’s Central Rift Valley powered entirely by geothermal energy. In May 2026, Cella and Octavia completed a first injection test at their Elementaita site, injecting approximately 460 kilograms of CO₂ into a basalt formation, placing Kenya among a small group of countries where atmospheric CO₂ has been successfully injected underground for permanent storage. Octavia’s Project Hummingbird is targeting approximately 1,000 net tonnes of removal annually by the end of 2026 through 68 modular units, and Octavia has already commissioned four modules for a second-generation plant.
Berkeley-based direct air capture company Aircapture was also among the CarbonX 2.0 winners, recognised for its Lightswing microwave-based DAC process. The technology uses microwave energy to break the bond between CO₂ and a sorbent material during regeneration, avoiding the energy losses associated with heating the surrounding system. Aircapture said this approach brings desorption costs closer to their theoretical minimum, contributing to a credible pathway towards sub-$100 per tonne carbon removal. Aircapture has deployed systems commercially across the US, Japan, and Europe.
Alongside the CarbonX 2.0 announcement, Tencent disclosed interim progress on its own operational emissions reductions, reporting that Scope 1 and 2 emissions were reduced by approximately 2.4 million tCO₂e and Scope 3 emissions by around 264,000 tCO₂e in 2025. The company’s next-generation T-AIDC data centre architecture achieves power efficiency above 98%, and on-site renewable energy capacity at owned data centres has expanded to 63.8 megawatts.
