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The race to reduce carbon emissions is intensifying, as is the planet itself. But reducing emissions alone will not be enough to stop what is happening.
That’s not even enough to meet the goal of the Paris climate agreement, which is to limit the planet during this century to 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels.
There is, however, technology being touted as a way to get us there faster – sucking carbon out of the atmosphere – and major investors are flocking to it now.
Just outside Zurich, more than a dozen massive fans are quickly at work, purifying the air of carbon dioxide. What’s called direct air capture is at the forefront of what could become the world’s largest environmental industry to save the planet.
The company behind it, Climeworks, is one of the few to offer the technology to essentially suck the atmosphere of carbon. The plant in Switzerland removes around 900 tonnes of carbon dioxide a year, according to Climeworks chief policy officer Chris Beuttler. To put it in perspective, globally we emit 40 billion tonnes.
Beuttler calls the plant a “drop in the bucket,” but the bucket is growing rapidly as new companies like Climeworks, as well as governments, seek to scale up what is known as direct carbon capture in monumental proportions.
“It has to be several gigatonnes in terms of scale and not just technologies like direct air capture, but all carbon removal solutions combined. We need everything,” Beuttler said.
Canadian company Carbon Engineering has been working on direct air capture since 2015. Arizona State University and Silicon Kingdom Holdings are deploying proprietary carbon capture technology that acts like a tree. “[It’s] thousands of times more effective at removing CO2 from the air, “says the ASU website.” “Mechanical shafts” allow captured gas to be sequestered or sold for reuse. “
The Climeworks system is a box with a huge fan on one end and a filter inside that only attracts carbon dioxide. The fan draws air through the filter, and once the filter is saturated, the box is closed. It is then heated to 100 degrees Celsius, and pure carbon dioxide is released and collected. The captured carbon can either be buried deep underground or sold for other uses.
Climeworks installed the Zurich system in 2017 and by 2020 had raised $ 100 million from Microsoft, Audi, Shopify and Stripe. She is currently building a much larger factory in Iceland.
“It’s got to become a trillion dollar market. And I think those are the types of investors who see there’s a long-term return on that,” Beuttler said.
He likens it to the rapid growth of electric vehicles, solar panels and wind farms. Now, the state of California is working on plans to use carbon capture to meet its ambitious goal of carbon neutrality.
“We have to try to keep going. We have no choice. We have to sequester carbon at a high rate,” said Ken Alex, director of the Climate project at the Center for Law, Energy and Environment at the University of California in Berkeley.
Carbon capture technology has been around for some time, he noted, but was considered too expensive.
“The price has already dropped significantly, and as it goes up I think it’s not unrealistic to think of this as a viable opportunity,” he said.
Alex estimates that the world needs around 50,000 carbon capture plants by 2050, which would cost around $ 10,000 billion. It is undoubtedly a colossal investment, but with a significant return potential – beyond of course saving the planet.
The captured carbon dioxide can be used to make fuel, plastics, and even bubbles. Climeworks sells some of its captured carbon to Coca-Cola. Ironically, oil producers like Exxon and Chevron are investing heavily in carbon capture because carbon can be used to release oil trapped underground.
“These opportunities are part of the investment dynamic,” said Alex. “It’s a new industry and it’s just starting to get wet, but I think the possibilities are pretty great.”
The elimination of carbon also offers a new opportunity for the carbon credits market. Right now, companies can get credits for avoided emissions, or reduced emissions, but in a net zero world, they must not only reduce but eliminate carbon.
Now they can buy these credits from moving companies like Climeworks. This is why big names like Microsoft, which has said it wants to cut its emissions by 2030, are joining it.
“In order to stay within safe levels of global warming, we need to expand this,” Beuttler said. “It’s not a question of can we? It’s a question of we have to do it.”
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