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About Climeworks

About Climeworks

Our purpose

We remove CO₂ from the air for good.

Our vision

We create the technology and markets that build a global carbon removal industry​.

Climeworks ambitious journey

Our two co-founders, Jan and Christoph, met on their first day of university at ETH Zurich and quickly became friends. Aside from their love of engineering, they both shared a passion for alpine sports and spent much time in the Swiss Alps. Here, they experienced the effects of climate change first-hand. Shocked by the retreat of the glaciers, they vowed to do everything they could to tackle climate change. 

Together, Jan and Christoph embarked on a journey toward a solution that would empower everyone to take climate action. As engineers at heart, they poured their efforts into working on a technology called direct air capture, a way to capture carbon dioxide directly from the air. As a result, Climeworks was founded in 2009 and is now the global leader in high-quality carbon removal, combining decades of expertise in Direct Air Capture (DAC) technology with holistic carbon removal solutions.

Climeworks is creating a clear pathway to making carbon removal a reality by offering diversified portfolios of high-quality carbon removals across engineered and nature-based solutions. The company operates the world's first commercial DAC and storage facilities and is committed to scaling its cutting-edge technology to drive down costs and deliver greater impact per dollar.

Climeworks is trusted by ambitious organizations and governments worldwide to support their carbon removal commitments, unlocking long-term resilience and economic growth.

Watch the video for a short glimpse of Climeworks’ history.

Our journey to gigaton scale

2050
Measurable

Gigaton: Climeworks will achieve climate impact at scale.

2040
measurable

Multi-megaton: our capacity will keep on increasing as we approach our goal.

2030
Measurable

Megaton: Climeworks’ technology will be rolled out globally.

2024
Tens of thousands of tons: Mammoth, Climeworks new and largest DAC+S plant, joins Orca in Iceland.

Tens of thousands of tons: Mammoth, Climeworks new and largest DAC+S plant, joins Orca in Iceland.

2021
Climeworkers in front of Orca

Thousands of tons: Orca, the world’s first and largest DAC+S plant, comes to life in Iceland.

2017
Capricorn in Hinwil - Climeworks' first direct air capture plant

Hundreds of tons: We launched the world’s first commercial DAC plant in Hinwil, Switzerland.

2014
Climeworks' collector in London

Tons: Climeworks’ first small-scale DAC plant, a modular CO₂ collector, begins operation.

2012
Jan Wurzbacher and Christoph gebald

Kilograms: We reached demonstration scale with the first demo prototype.

2009
Climeworks logo

Milligrams: Climeworks is founded by Jan and Christoph, who capture CO₂ from the air under lab conditions at the Professorship of Renewable Energy Carriers (Prof. Steinfeld) of ETH Zurich.

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