In addition to emissions reduction efforts, which prevent new CO₂ from entering the atmosphere, climate scientists agree that removing historic emissions is crucial to reach net zero no later than 2050 to limit global warming to 1.5°C. Net zero means restoring a healthy balance of CO₂ in the atmosphere: emissions must be reduced to zero. All emissions that cannot yet be reduced have to be removed with carbon dioxide removal.
Carbon dioxide removal is more than just preventing additional CO₂ from entering the atmosphere. In contrast to offsets, where others are paid to reduce their emissions on behalf of another party that in return continues emitting, or carbon capture and storage (CCS), where CO₂ is captured from point sources, direct air capture and storage actively removes CO₂ from the air and thus produces negative emissions.
Under construction: Orca, the world's biggest direct air capture and storage plant.
The urgency of this task is undoubted, and businesses, now more than ever, are playing their part by committing and implementing ambitious climate targets. To achieve your business' climate targets, two things should be considered:
In order to get to net zero, the first and most efficient thing to do remains reducing carbon emissions. This can be achieved through a dedicated carbon reduction strategy. However, there will likely be residual carbon emissions that are considered as unavoidable. It is for these unavoidable carbon emissions, that your company needs a carbon removal strategy to reach net zero. With Climeworks, you can have your company's past and present CO₂ emissions removed from the air as a service. Climeworks is the first company operating commercial direct air capture and storage facilities. Our new direct air capture and storage plant, Orca, demonstrates further scale-up of our technology. Orca has been triggered through our pioneering customers demanding our carbon dioxide removal service.
Climeworks' direct air capture technology combined with permanent storage removes historic and current emissions from the air. When compared to other carbon dioxide removal solutions, nature-based or technical, Climeworks' technology provides a unique solution that is:
Know precisely how much CO₂ is captured and stored. Climeworks accounts for the own process related CO₂ emissions and offers net carbon dioxide removal to customers.
Have CO₂ removed from air and stored permanently. The mineralization process is scientifically proven to be safe with no negative impacts to the ecosystem.
Use a highly scalable solution, thanks to a modular plant design, working at low-temperature heat and with minimal land-usage footprint.
Since time is critical, use a solution that removes one ton of CO₂ very rapidly from air.
By choosing Climeworks' carbon dioxide removal services, customers can define the amount of CO₂ emissions to be removed from the air and stored permanently. A carbon dioxide removal confirmation and delivery note will be provided to the customers stating the exact amount of carbon dioxide that will be removed in your name, as well as information on when and where it was captured and stored.
Climeworks explicitly accounts for its own process-related CO₂ emissions and offers net carbon dioxide removal to customers. Climeworks carbon dioxide removal customers have the possibility to purchase once or to engage in a longer-term contract. One-time purchases enable big flexibility whereas multi-year agreements unlock planning security and reserve capacity.
After committing to invest 1 million dollars in carbon dioxide removal solutions per year, American payment company Stripe eventually chose four organizations to purchase CDR from. Climeworks was one of them. Stripe based their final choice on detailed due diligence pursued by external experts, who focused on the impact on investment.
By creating this demand for carbon dioxide removal Stripe is helping to kickstart the market and is enabling the scale-up of key negative emissions technologies.
Following the establishment of the Shopify Sustainability Fund in 2019 and amid the coronavirus crisis, Shopify invested 5 million dollars to support the most promising solutions fighting climate change.
23% of the fund was attributed to Direct Air Capture companies.
Their commitment and investment set a very high bar for other businesses to follow suit.
Audi is the first European automotive company which committed to purchasing carbon dioxide removal. They identified this purchase as an important measure for reaching the group's climate targets.
Climeworks is removing 1000 metric tons of CO₂ from the atmosphere on behalf of Audi as an addition to their emissions reduction strategy. With this purchase, Audi strives to promote the development of innovative climate technology.
Microsoft's Chief Environmental Officer Lucas Joppa and our co-CEO and co-founder Christoph Gebald came together to discuss why it's so important to start now with carbon dioxide removal - businesses and for the earth.