Key take-aways:
- “Climeworks: Removing CO₂ from the air” introduces Climeworks' journey to one of the most advanced carbon removal companies today.
- Co-CEOs Jan Wurzbacher and Christoph Gebald explain their vision to bring Climeworks’ high-quality carbon removal solution via direct air capture and storage (DAC+S) to gigaton scale.
- The film is part of the documentary-style series “Humanizing Energy” from BBC StoryWorks and presented by the World Energy Council. It is featured in the section “Reducing day to day carbon: how do we decarbonize our transport, cities and atmosphere?”, which showcases different solutions in the emissions reductions and carbon removal fields.
We’re excited to introduce our new film “Climeworks: Removing CO₂ from the air”, which dives into Climeworks' history, technology, and scalable potential. Explore the labs at our Zurich headquarters and our Orca plant in Iceland—the world’s only commercial direct air capture and storage (DAC+S) plant in operations.
The film was produced by BBC StoryWorks, the creative content division of BBC Studio, and is presented by the World Energy Council. The film is part of a documentary-style series, called “Humanizing Energy”, which consists of 30 films and showcases innovations from organizations across the energy ecosystem. Weaving together awe-inspiring ideas and future-thinking communities, this collection of stories showcases sparks of inspiration from around the world.
Carbon removal complements drastic emissions reductions in the fight against global warming
To maximize our chances of limiting global warming to 1.5°C, global CO₂ emissions need to be reduced by at least 90%. The transition from fossil to clean energy is key to achieve this target. The main focus of the Humanizing Energy series is therefore on the work of different organizations to create clean energy solutions for the future. However, to eliminate the remaining 5-10% of unavoidable CO₂ emissions - plus the historic CO₂ emissions that have built up in our atmosphere over decades – we also need carbon removal, as stated by the IPCC and SBTi.
For the nascent carbon removal industry, and in particular technological carbon removal approaches like DAC+S, the scale up of clean energy around the globe is key for success. After all, powering a DAC+S plant should not emit more CO₂ than the plant removes from the atmosphere. This is why Climeworks’ technology runs exclusively on renewable energy, achieving a CO₂- efficiency of more than 90% (read the LCA study here).
In “Climeworks: Removing CO₂ from the air”, our co-CEOs Jan Wurzbacher and Christoph Gebald explain their vision to bring Climeworks’ carbon removal solution to gigaton scale: relying on renewable energy, a modular plant design, permanent CO₂ storage, and independent third-party verification to deliver a high-quality carbon removal service for companies.
To learn more about Humanising Energy, visit the dedicated hub site or watch the film on the Climeworks Youtube channel.
What's next for Climeworks after Iceland?
U.S. DOE selected three out of three DAC Hub applications that we participated in. Learn more about our plans in the U.S.