Climeworks at TED: The massive machines removing CO₂ from Earth's atmosphere

Climeworks' co-founder and co-CEO Jan Wurzbacher was invited to the 2022 session of TED Countdown London. Drawing on more than 15 years of experience with direct air capture technology, Jan shared his insights on the challenges to permanently remove CO₂ from the air and what role Climeworks' Orca plant plays in the scale up of the carbon removal industry at large.

"Direct air capture is not a silver bullet, but a must-have"

To date, Orca is the only commercial direct air capture and storage facility in the world. With its launch in September 2021, permanent carbon removal became a tangible reality. But we know that Orca is only the first step of many more to come: to complement drastic emissions reductions in the fight against global warming, carbon removal solutions like direct air capture and storage need to remove billions of tons of CO₂ from the air by 2050.

Watch Jan's TED talk for his expert take on what it really means to operate a first-of-its-kind facility like Orca and how we can fulfil the potential of carbon removal for a net zero future.

Climeworks delivered third-party verified CDR services to its first corporate customers