● The newest report by the IPCC has confirmed once again that carbon dioxide removal is essential for mitigating climate change
● Equity investor Verdane has announced its commitment to neutralize all its future residual emissions with engineered, permanent carbon removals
● By supporting Climeworks, Heirloom and neustark, Verdane aims to catalyze demand for crucial net zero technologies that urgently need to be scaled and brought down the cost curve
● Verdane has set a target to achieve net zero scope 1-2 emissions in 2022 and reduce scope 3 emissions intensity (all scope 3 emissions except portfolio company emissions) by 65% until 2030 versus 2021
● Equity investor Verdane has announced its commitment to neutralize all its future residual emissions with engineered, permanent carbon removals
● By supporting Climeworks, Heirloom and neustark, Verdane aims to catalyze demand for crucial net zero technologies that urgently need to be scaled and brought down the cost curve
● Verdane has set a target to achieve net zero scope 1-2 emissions in 2022 and reduce scope 3 emissions intensity (all scope 3 emissions except portfolio company emissions) by 65% until 2030 versus 2021
The latest report by the IPCC has confirmed that carbon dioxide removal is essential to limit global warming to 1.5°C. In addition to drastic emissions reductions, carbon removal solutions need to be deployed at scale to remove historic and residual CO₂ emissions to reach net-zero emissions by 2050, and eventually net-negative emissions.
Verdane, the European specialist growth equity investor, has announced its commitment to neutralize all its future residual emissions with engineered, permanent carbon removals, including Climeworks’ direct air capture and storage solution. As the first private equity investor globally to make this commitment, Verdane aims to catalyze demand for crucial net zero technologies that urgently need to be scaled and brought down the cost curve.
In addition to Climeworks, Verdane is also partnering with Heirloom and neustark. After a comprehensive due diligence process, Verdane selected the three companies due to their track record of excellence in the field of carbon removals, highlighting previous agreements with early supporters like Microsoft, Stripe, Boston Consulting Group, LGT Group and Swiss RE.
Verdane is starting with an initial purchase covering its 2022 and 2023 Scope 1-3 forecasted remaining emissions. As demand for carbon removal technologies is growing and providers are ramping up neutralization capabilities, the removal will be spread over several years, covering several thousand tons of CO₂. Verdane has set a target to achieve net zero scope 1-2 emissions in 2022 and reduce scope 3 emissions intensity (all scope 3 emissions except portfolio company emissions) by 65% until 2030 versus 2021.
Bjarne Kveim Lie, Managing Partner and Chief Investment Officer at Verdane, commented: “it is now established that carbon removal is going to be a necessary complement to – though of course by no means a substitute for – dramatically cutting global emissions. Pioneering firms in this area need pioneering customers willing to accept higher short term costs for higher quality offsets. Verdane is calling on both businesses and the worldwide asset management community to join in this effort to help create a global market where there isn’t one today.”
About Climeworks
Climeworks empowers people and companies to fight global warming by offering carbon dioxide removal as a service via direct air capture (DAC) technology. At Orca, Climeworks’ DAC facility in Iceland, the CO2 is permanently removed from the air by capturing and geologically storing it for thousands of years with Climeworks’ storage partner Carbfix. Climeworks’ DAC facilities run exclusively on clean energy, and our modular CO2 collectors can be stacked to build machines of any capacity.
Founded by engineers Christoph Gebald and Jan Wurzbacher in 2009, Climeworks is on a journey to climate impact at scale. To do so, we strive to inspire 1 billion people to act and remove CO2 from the air. Climeworks is spear-heading the DAC industry globally, with the world’s largest DAC facility and storage installation in operation and a team of 300 Climeworkers determined to contribute to a net-zero future. Our growing customer base includes over 160 companies, including multinationals such as Microsoft, BCG, UBS or Swiss Re, as well as more than 18,000 individual Climate Pioneers.
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