BCG and Climeworks sign 15-year partnership agreement

Key take-aways:

Two years after signing their first carbon removal partnership in 2021, Climeworks and BCG sign an unprecedented 15-year agreement to rapidly scale high-quality carbon removal to fight global warming.
This removals purchase of 80,000 metric tons of carbon dioxide (tCO₂) is the largest of Climeworks’ corporate buyers to date.
The significant duration of the agreement underlines the crucial role of long-term commitments to fast-track the capacity build-out of high-quality removals. For this, Climeworks is a leader across multiple geographies.

Cornelius Pieper, Christoph Gebald, and Rich Lesser at COP28 in Dubai (1 December 2023).

Climeworks, a global leader in carbon removal via direct air capture technology, and Boston Consulting Group (BCG), one of the world’s leading management consulting firms, are strengthening their collaboration with a 15-year strategic partnership agreement.

As with their first contract in 2021, this agreement entails a carbon removal purchase agreement to support BCG’s journey to Net-Zero, and an agreement for BCG to provide consulting services to Climeworks.

Unlocking the potential of direct air capture

The world needs direct air capture in order to reach net-zero by 2050. Major, early investment will enable this innovative technology to operate at the gigaton scale required - a scale that currently far outsizes projected supply for the coming decades. That’s why BCG has committed to help scale permanent removals like direct air capture via large-scale, long-term investment. In doing so, the firm hopes to encourage more pioneer investment in direct air capture, lower the cost curve, and scale-up this vital climate technology.

Rich Lesser, BCG’s Global Chair, emphasized at the Climeworks Direct Air Capture Summit in June that “we have a responsibility, every one of us in every firm, to accelerate our journey. Early investment can change the curve and will benefit everyone.”

Jan Huckfeldt, Chief Commercial Officer of Climeworks

Together with BCG, we’re redefining what carbon removal stewardship looks like with an agreement going all the way up to 2040. Long-term commitments defined the success of the solar energy transition and will undoubtedly become more frequent in our industry. It sets a precedent for other climate leaders understanding that carbon removal is a necessity and securing their share of supply early in this future trillion-dollar market.

Resilient investment in permanent carbon removals

The long-term partnership will accelerate Climeworks’ global roll-out of its direct air capture and storage plants, providing planning security and fostering financing efforts – akin to how long-term contracting facilitated early solar energy projects. The contract, covering 80,000 metric tons of CO₂, represents the single largest purchase of Climeworks’ corporate buyers to date. It comes on the heels of the U.S. Department of Energy’s selection of Climeworks as the technology partner for three Direct Air Capture Hubs in the U.S., as well as the company’s latest partnerships in Kenya and Canada.

“Without carbon removal, net-zero is out of reach. This is true for BCG and across industries at large. It’s imperative that we start scaling carbon removal today, in particular high-quality solutions that are verifiable, additional, and permanent, to be able to meet the growing demand in the coming decades. Climeworks continues to be a driving force in carbon removal and is a valued partner on the path to BCG’s net zero target”, said David Webb, Chief Sustainability Officer of BCG.

Climeworks and BCG at COP28

At COP28 in Dubai, Climeworks’ co-founder and co-CEO Christoph Gebald and Cornelius Pieper, Managing Director and Senior Partner at BCG, sat down with BCG’s Global Chair Rich Lesser to talk about the significance of this 15-year agreement: