Tencent has selected 16 climate-technology teams to share nearly US$30 million through CarbonX 2.0, a global programme intended to advance decarbonisation solutions from pilots to commercial deployment. The company announced the cohort at the London Science Museum during London Climate Action Week 2026, at an event co-hosted with TED. Winners will receive capital alongside technical resources, expert networks, industry partnerships and opportunities to test their solutions in real-world environments.
CarbonX 2.0 Programme
CarbonX 2.0 attracted 660 applications from 54 countries and regions across six continents. Tencent identified 50 finalists before selecting 16 organisations for funding or tailored support, demonstrating the international reach of the programme. The cohort spans carbon dioxide removal, carbon capture, utilisation and storage for steel, carbon utilisation, long-duration energy storage, and climate measurement and verification.
The carbon dioxide removal group comprises Aircapture, Cella Mineral Storage, Nanjing University, Octavia Carbon and Parallel Carbon, with Kenya among the locations planned for pilot activity. In steel decarbonisation, Shanghai Advanced Research Institute of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and Belgian research organisation VITO were chosen to pursue projects in Serbia and China. Canada’s CERT Systems and US-based Seerstone will focus on using captured carbon dioxide as a material input, while Quino Energy was selected to advance water-based organic flow batteries for long-duration storage.
Commercial Support and Deployment
Six further teams, Andes, Flux, OCOchem, Peking University, PyroCCS and SYNLIFE, will receive customised support rather than direct funding alone. This includes measurement, reporting and verification tools, carbon-credit procurement commitments and green-premium subsidy mechanisms. The structure reflects the challenge facing early climate technologies, which often need market validation, potential buyers and credible performance data alongside investment.
Tencent said the combined package is designed to reduce the barriers between technical proof and scaled deployment. Many climate solutions require extensive testing, industrial partnerships and specialised infrastructure before they can become commercially viable. By providing funding together with pilot opportunities and ecosystem access, the company is seeking to help selected teams move more quickly towards wider adoption.
Tencent’s Climate Targets
Alongside the investment programme, Tencent used the announcement to report progress against its 2030 targets, which include carbon neutrality across operations and supply chains and a transition to 100% renewable energy. The company said it reduced Scope 1 and 2 emissions by 2,399,814.9 tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent and Scope 3 emissions by 263,962.5 tonnes during 2025. It also reported that power usage effectiveness at owned data centres improved from 1.257 to 1.246 despite growing AI-related demand for computing capacity.
Renewables accounted for 83% of electricity used at Tencent’s self-owned internet data centres in 2025, up from 49.8% in 2024, while on-site renewable capacity reached 63.8 megawatts. The green-electricity share at its leased data centres increased from 3.8% to 21.4%, and Tencent said its computing-power-synergy model can align workloads with available renewable supply. The company claims this approach can lower costs by more than 40% while reducing emissions and supporting grid stability.
Tencent is positioning CarbonX 2.0 as both an investment vehicle and a bridge between climate innovators, industrial partners and potential pilot sites. The programme gives its cohort access to an international platform at a time when carbon-management and energy-storage technologies face difficult commercialisation pathways. Ultimately, their impact will depend on technical performance, regulatory conditions, customer adoption and whether further capital becomes available for wider deployment.