Air conditioning technology Climeworks feels the slack in its customer search
Climeworks' "Orca" plant in Iceland: the Zurich-based company intends to stick to its CO2 capture technology. (archive picture)
Image: Keystone
Since last April, however, Climeworks has also been offering reforestation projects from partners. (symbolic image)
Image: Keystone
Climeworks' "Orca" plant in Iceland: the Zurich-based company intends to stick to its CO2 capture technology. (archive picture)
Image: Keystone
Since last April, however, Climeworks has also been offering reforestation projects from partners. (symbolic image)
Image: Keystone
Climate hopeful Climeworks is making slow progress in its search for new customers for its CO2 capture technology. As a result, the company is now also offering controversial forest protection projects.
14.02.2025, 10:25
SDA
The hype surrounding Climeworks was huge. Since 2009, the ETH spin-off has been promising to capture CO2 from the air with huge systems and store it in the ground - like a large vacuum cleaner. Companies and private individuals can use certificates to voluntarily offset their emissions.
Now the euphoria seems to have fizzled out somewhat. "The main problem at the moment is finding enough new buyers for certificates," says co-founder and Co-Managing Director Christoph Gebald in an interview with the news agency AWP.
This is because no one is forcing companies to offset their emissions, such as business flights. "This makes it difficult to make sales forecasts and find investors."
Offer expanded
This is why Climeworks has been expanding its offering since last year. In addition to its own solution, the extraction of CO2, it now also offers projects from partners who plant trees, for example.
This also binds CO2 from the air. However, the method has been controversial for some time because it is considered unsafe.
Climeworks will therefore check its partners using "strict criteria", says Gebald. Of course, it can always happen that lightning strikes somewhere and a forest burns down. There is "insurance" for such cases.
Founders optimistic
Even if sustainability is currently experiencing a slump, the Climeworks boss remains optimistic: "More and more companies are realizing that it will be advantageous for them in the long term to start removing CO2 today." In doing so, they are securing access to a technology that is already only available to a limited extent.
And one thing is certain: "Climate change is an irrefutable reality that we have to face up to - even if measures and policies do not always proceed in a straightforward manner."
Climeworks has sold certificates for over 230,000 tons of CO2 to date, but has only delivered certificates for around 870 tons. This was due to delays in the construction of the plants and in obtaining full third-party certification.
The company counts well-known companies such as Morgan Stanley, Microsoft, UBS, Partners Group and British Airways among its customers. It operates two plants in Iceland and employs 500 people worldwide.
