This November, COP26 once again demonstrated the private sector’s vital role in the fight against climate change. To limit global warming to safe levels, we need to do everything we can. The latest report by the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change confirms that it is crucial to reduce our emissions drastically and on top of that permanently remove unavoidable and historic carbon emissions from the air. Companies act as a key enabler driving both emissions reductions as well as emissions removals by helping to advance innovative solutions.

One such solution is Climeworks’ carbon dioxide removal via direct air capture technology: it is the only available solution that can reduce atmospheric concentration of CO2 in a scalable manner by capturing CO2 from the air today and storing it permanently underground.

BCG’s commitment to reach net-zero climate impact by 2030

In September 2020, BCG announced a bold new commitment to achieve net-zero climate impact by 2030 and, from there, to become climate positive, removing more carbon from the atmosphere than they annually emit. BCG has now signed a 10-year agreement with Climeworks, which will remove part of BCG’s unavoidable CO2 emissions and is thus an important part of the company’s net-zero strategy.

With this agreement, and others in this space still to come, BCG’s goal is to help unlock a meaningful DAC capacity by establishing long-term partnerships with DAC leaders to help scale the broader market and demonstrate the significant impact DAC can have in enabling companies to get to net-zero climate impact.

On top of the carbon removal purchasing agreement, BCG will provide consulting services to Climeworks with the objective of supporting the broader adoption and scaling of their services and thus help accelerate their scale-up.

About Climeworks’ direct air capture and storage technology

Powered solely by renewable energy, Climeworks’ direct air capture plants capture CO2 from the air. In Iceland, Climeworks’ storage partner Carbfix mixes the CO2 with water and pumps it deep underground where it reacts with the basaltic rock formations and mineralizes: the CO2 literally turns into stone. Climeworks’ technology is scalable and does not compete with arable land. This September, Climeworks launched its new large-scale direct air capture and storage plant “Orca” in Iceland, bringing large-scale direct air capture technology to reality.

Quote from Christoph Gebald, co-CEO and co-founder of Climeworks

“The carbon removal market’s ability to scale up fast relies on early action from pioneering companies. After having brought the first carbon removal plant into operations earlier this year, we are proud to be partnering with BCG as the first direct air capture company and help them achieve their 2030 net zero ambition. Such partnerships also play a vital role in inspiring other businesses to support science-based and scalable solutions.”

Christoph Gebald, co-CEO and co-founder of Climeworks