TOP 100 Swiss startup Climeworks is now part of Microsoft's carbon removal portfolio

It is not enough to only reduce our emissions – if we want to restore a healthy balance of CO2 in the atmosphere, we also must achieve negative emissions. This means humanity has to remove more CO2 from the air than it emits. Leading scientific studies indicate that by mid-century 10 billion tons of carbon dioxide will need to be removed from the air every year to keep global warming in the line with the limits of the Paris Agreement. There are two basic approaches: natural climate solutions and negative emissions technologies. Climate scenarios that limit global warming to 1.5°C rely on large-scale applications of carbon removal technologies. Climeworks’ direct air capture and storage is a scalable solution that can remove CO2 from the air in a permanent and measurable way.

This commitment is an important milestone in the fight against climate change, Climeworks hopes it will inspire many other established businesses and institutions to follow suit and remove past, present, and future emissions from the air to achieve negative emissions for the planet.

In addition to emissions reduction efforts, which prevent new CO2 from entering the atmosphere, climate scientists agree that removing historic and unavoidable emissions from the air is crucial to limit global warming to 1.5°C. Businesses play a key role in the mitigation of global warming and are starting to address their current, past, and unavoidable carbon emissions. Microsoft’s commitments are a core example of this: negative emissions by 2030, removal of all historic emissions by 2050. To achieve these goals, Microsoft selected a portfolio of promising negative emissions technologies available today to remove their emissions on top of reducing their emissions.

Climeworks’ carbon dioxide removal has been selected in Microsoft’s carbon removal portfolio, after successfully passing an extensive application process. The selection of Climeworks carbon dioxide removal is a recognition of its strong scientific backbone resulting in an effective, safe and permanent storage solution. CO2 is captured from air in Hellisheiði, Iceland, with Climeworks’ direct air capture technology. Climeworks’ partner Carbfix then mixes the CO2 with water, pumps it underground, and through the process of rapid underground mineralization, the CO2 is stored safely and permanently.

“Being part of Microsoft’s CO2 removal portfolio is a game-changer. Not only does Microsoft’s approach remove their own emissions, but they are also inspiring other businesses to invest in science-based and scalable solutions that have the potential to make a significant difference in the fight against climate change — like Climeworks’ carbon dioxide removal.” Christoph Gebald, co-CEO, and co-founder of Climeworks

In addition, Microsoft will provide funding through its Climate Innovation Fund for Climeworks’ first-of-a-kind commercial-scale, fully renewable carbon capture and mineralization plant in Iceland.

“Climeworks' direct air capture technology will serve as a key component of our carbon removal efforts. Their application set a high bar for technical rigor - especially the permanence of their solution, and we are looking forward to helping further scale their work with this purchase." Elizabeth Willmott, Carbon Program Manager at Microsoft.

Source: Press Release Climeworks

Climeworks is a 2010 Venture Kick alumni, participated in Venture Leader China 2017, and was elected several times as one of the TOP 100 Swiss startups from 2011 to 2014.