Climeworks agrees ten-year contract with Microsoft

Microsoft has signed a ten-year contract in the area of direct air capture (DAC), as part of which the Zurich-based company Climeworks will be tasked with permanently removing a total of 10,000 tons of CO2 from the atmosphere over this period. Last year, Climeworks was included in the Microsoft portfolio as the only company specializing in this technology. The global technology company is aiming to achieve its goal of operating on a carbon-negative basis by 2030 and eliminating all of its historical carbon emissions by 2050.

According to a press release issued by Climeworks, which was founded as a spin-off from the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich (ETH), this forward-looking commitment represents one of the largest DAC agreements ever signed. Moreover, it is proof of Microsoft’s conviction with regard both to the technology itself and the ability of Climeworks to scale.

“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”, explains Christoph Gebald, co-CEO and co-founder of Climeworks, in the press release.

Lucas Joppa, Chief Environmental Officer at Microsoft, confirms that the agreement with Climeworks can help to “kickstart the commercial and technical progress in a nascent but crucial industry to achieve IPCC targets”.