Can Carbon Removal Solve Climate Change Crisis Effectively?

(MENAFN- Swissinfo) Jan Wurzbacher, co-CEO of Climeworks, explains how his company can have significant impact on the climate crisis. This content was published on April 26, 2025 - 10:30 10 minutes

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As a photo editor I am responsible for the editorial use of photography at SWI swissinfo and our collaborations with photographers. When the opportunity arises, I take a camera and accompany one of our journalists. I trained as a photographer in Zürich and began working as a photojournalist in 1989. I was a founder of the Swiss photographers' agency Lookat Photos in 1990. A two-time World Press Award winner, I have also been awarded several Swiss national scholarships. My work has been widely exhibited and it is represented in various collections.

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Climeworks, a Zurich-based start-up specialises in carbon dioxide (CO2) removal from the atmosphere using direct air capture (DAC).

Its ambitions are audacious: it aims to remove one billion tonnes of CO2 per year – roughly 2.5% of current global annual emissions – by 2050. This means that on top of the CHF800 million ($970 million) in funding it has secured, the company and its partners would need to build 1,000 large plants, requiring an estimated CHF1-2 trillion in additional financing.

In an interview with SWI swissinfo, Climeworks' co-founder and co-CEO Jan Wurzbacher discusses the financial, operational, commercial and regulatory challenges in turning this ambition into reality.

SWI swissinfo: Currently, about 40 billion tonnes of carbon dioxide (CO2 ) are emitted into the atmosphere a year. How much should be removed by direct air capture (DAC) annually to reach the target set by the Paris Agreement?

Jan Wurzbacher: Under the Paris Agreement, achieving net-zero emissions by 2050 is critical to limiting global warming to 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels. According to the United Nations' Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), net-zero emissions should primarily be achieved by reducing emissions by about 30 billion tonnes per year. The remaining ten billion tonnes per year, considered as“unavoidable” emissions (including those for instance from long-haul flights), must be removed from the atmosphere. Several nature-based and engineering-based methods can be employed for this purpose, with DAC being a significant option. While predicting a precise value for DAC in 2050 is difficult, a reasonable target is five billion tonnes per year.

Thomas Kern / Swissinfo

SWI: What is your current CO2 removal capacity, and what are your objectives?

J.W.: Our first plant in Iceland has a capacity of 4,000 tonnes per year, and our second plant in the same country, inaugurated in May 2024, will have an installed capture capacity of approximately 30,000 tonnes per year once fully ramped up. Our future plant in Louisiana, in the United States, is planned for inauguration in late 2027 and is expected to capture 250,000 tonnes of CO2 per year in a first phase, expanding to one million tonnes per year in a subsequent phase.

Our goal is to capture one billion tonnes of CO2 per year by 2050, which is about 10% of the total carbon removal market and 20% of the DAC market. Unlike the software industry, where a winner-takes-all dynamic is often prevalent, the industrial nature of DAC suggests that several large players will coexist.

SWI: Is increasing your capacity to one billion tonnes by 2050 realistic?

J.W.: A large DAC plant can capture one million tonnes of CO2 annually and requires an investment of $1-2 billion (CHF825 million-CHF1.65 billion). That's comparable to a large power plant. To achieve our 2050 target, we need 1,000 such plants. From an industry scale-up perspective, this is feasible, given that there are currently 5,000 to 7,000 large power plants worldwide. However, our industry must overcome financial and operational challenges, secure suitable sites with cost-effective energy sources, and ensure sufficient market demand for carbon capture services. Stronger regulatory support, such as tax credits, carbon taxes and net-zero obligations, will be essential.

SWI: Given the importance of regulations to support the roll out of DAC projects, what will be the impact of Donald Trump's presidency on Climeworks?

J.W.: Although we expect some impact, the simple answer is that we do not know at this stage. While on the one hand fewer incentives and obligations to remove CO2 are expected in the US market, on the other simplified regulations could facilitate the deployment of DAC projects.

The US market is important for us, but there is also growing momentum elsewhere, for example in Asia. We need to scale up to reduce our operating costs. Scaling up in a few countries would be enough for us to reach our target. By comparison, the solar panel industry has achieved significant cost reductions primarily due to policies in only three countries: Germany, Japan and Spain.

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