● Climeworks is excited to take its collaboration with Microsoft to the next level: following its selection as part of Microsoft’s carbon removal portfolio last year, the two companies have now closed a new 10-year carbon removal offtake agreement.
● Such long-term commitments are crucial to help scale the carbon removal industry as it provides planning security to both sides and accelerates mainstream adoption.
● Especially in the case of direct air capture (DAC), multi-year commitments strongly foster long-term financing efforts and thus not only support the scale-up of the technology, but of the whole ecosystem behind it.
In 2020, Microsoft announced its pioneering commitment to be carbon negative by 2030 and remove all of its historic CO2 emissions by 2050. One year later, Climeworks’ carbon dioxide removal was the only DAC solution selected by Microsoft for its first carbon removal portfolio, after successfully passing an extensive review process.
Today, Climeworks is proud to take its collaboration with Microsoft one step further by becoming its first long-term carbon removal supplier. The two companies signed a 10-year carbon removal offtake agreement, where Climeworks will permanently remove 10’000 tons of CO2 emissions from the atmosphere on Microsoft’s behalf. This second and forward-looking commitment is one of the largest DAC agreements ever signed and proof of Microsoft’s conviction of both Climeworks’ technology and ability to scale.
“We are thrilled to sign our second carbon removal contract with Microsoft and work together in the long run. Long-term commitments like this multi-year agreement are crucial for scaling the DAC industry because the guaranteed demand catalyzes financing of our infrastructure and consequently accelerates the development of the required ecosystem for scaling DAC”, says Christoph Gebald, co-founder and co-CEO of Climeworks.
“Microsoft’s multi-year offtake agreement with Climeworks is an important step towards realizing the ‘net’ in net zero,” said Microsoft Chief Environmental Officer Lucas Joppa. “Our experience in purchasing renewable energy shows that long-term agreements can provide an essential foundation for society's race to scale new decarbonization technologies. Paired with Microsoft’s Climate Innovation Fund investment in Climeworks’ direct air capture plant, this agreement with Climeworks can help kickstart the commercial and technical progress in a nascent but crucial industry to achieve IPCC targets.”
Direct air capture is key to mitigating climate change. The IPCC estimates that by mid-century, we will need to remove 3-12 billion tons of CO2 from the air every year in order to limit global warming to 1.5°C. Direct air capture and storage is expected to contribute a significant part, with a potential of removing up to 310 billion tons of CO2 by 2100 to limit global warming to 1.5°C with no or limited overshoot.
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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