"The market for carbon dioxide removal has basically had an exponential development over the past two, two and a half years," Wurzbacher told CNBC. But in April, Climeworks announced it raised $650 million from a collection of investors including, among others, Global Founders Capital, John Doerr, and Swiss Re. Until recently, Climeworks was funded by about $150 million of money from private individual investors. It would be counterproductive to burn fossil fuels, which release carbon dioxide into the atmosphere, to power a carbon removal plant. It is composed of eight carbon capturing modules made from 44 shipping containers with filters inside that are able to remove 4,000 tons of carbon dioxide per year.Ĭlimeworks picked Iceland to open its first plant in part because its carbon storage partner, CarbFix, is based there, and because there are sufficient sources of renewable energy in Iceland. In September 2021, Climeworks opened its first commercial direct air carbon capture and storage plant in Iceland. "Those companies that are currently our customers, they are taking the fact that they are removing carbon from the atmosphere and making that an element of their products and of their services." Selling captured carbon dioxide for use in fizzy drinks or in greenhouses, are "more or less negligible," Wurzbacher told CNBC.Ĭarbon removal demand is largely coming from companies who see climate goals - being able to sell a product as either carbon neutral or carbon negative - as a "vital ingredient to their business in the future," Wurzbacher told CNBC. Now, Climeworks is primarily removing carbon and storing it underground by mineralizing it with basalt rock. So far, more than 14,000 people have signed on.Īround the same time, corporate clients including Microsoft, Stripe, and Shopify, are doing business with Climeworks in order to demonstrate their climate commitments. In 2018, Climeworks began allowing individuals to pay anything from $36 to $120 per month to have the company remove some amount of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere on their behalf. "We just went on and didn't listen too much" to the doubters, he said.īut years later, as consumers and businesses grew more concerned about climate change, the company began seeing demand. Wurzbacher, 38, was just 25 years old when the company started. "We didn't know what would happen or exactly how things would turn out, how long it would take to develop the technology, to scale the technology - but for us, it was somehow clear that this is something that will be needed." "Of course, there were a lot of skeptics at that point in time," Wurzbacher told CNBC. When Wurzbacher and Gebald were sure that technical carbon dioxide removal would be necessary to respond to climate change, many others were not. Carbon dioxide removed from the air mechanically, as Climeworks does, can be permanently stored underground. Also, a tree can die, be cut down or burned after it is planted, making it hard to account for how much CO2 it will actually remove over its lifetime. Planting trees is a natural method, but that takes a lot more land than the factories Climeworks is building to remove an equivalent amount of CO2. There are other ways to remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere besides vacuuming it from the air. "CDR is also an essential element of scenarios that limit warming to 1.5☌ or likely below 2☌ by 2100, regardless of whether global emissions reach near zero, net zero or net negative levels." "Carbon Dioxide Removal (CDR) is necessary to achieve net zero carbon dioxide and greenhouse gas emissions both globally and nationally, counterbalancing 'hard-to-abate' residual emissions," the technical summary of the IPCC recommendations says. Personal Loans for 670 Credit Score or Lowerīut now, in addition to the private sector investment, the United Nations' leading climate science organization, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), included carbon capture in its April update for addressing global warming. Personal Loans for 580 Credit Score or Lower Best Debt Consolidation Loans for Bad Credit
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