By Cyber Era NG Special Correspondent

The latest report by the IPCC, released on Monday, reconfirms that carbon dioxide removal is essential to limit global warming to 1.5°C. In addition to drastic emissions reductions, carbon removal solutions need to be deployed at scale to remove historic and residual CO₂ emissions to reach net-zero emissions by 2050, and eventually net-negative emissions.

Today, Climeworks announced that it has signed an equity round of CHF 600 million (US$ 650 million), which marks a major milestone in the history of Climeworks and an even bigger step for the carbon removal industry.

The financing is co-led by Partners Group (acting on behalf of its clients) and GIC, with further participation from (in alphabetical order) Baillie Gifford, Carbon Removal Partners, Global Founders Capital, John Doerr, M&G, Swiss Re, as well as other new and existing shareholders including long-term investor and anchor shareholder BigPoint Holding AG. J.P. Morgan Securities LLC served as sole placement agent for Climeworks in connection with the transaction.

Since its foundation in 2009, Climeworks has pioneered direct air capture technology and is the most advanced industry player, with the world’s largest direct air capture and storage plant launched in September 2021. The new investor base includes several of the most renowned and largest institutional technology and infrastructure investors globally. The funding will unlock the next phase of Climeworks’ growth, scaling direct air capture up to multi-million-ton capacity and implementing large-scale facilities as carbon removal becomes a trillion-dollar market.

Co-CEO and co-founder of Climeworks, Christoph Gebald said:  “We are proud to partner with our new investors and thankful for the renewed trust of our existing ones, all committed to the long-term journey of Climeworks. It is thrilling to see the appetite and support of globally leading investors towards the scale up of our technology; this is a great milestone for our company as well as the entire industry.”

Co-founder and co-CEO of Climeworks, Jan Wurzbacher commented: “We founded Climeworks with the vision to provide the world a tech that has the potential to reverse climate change. Accelerating the scale up of carbon removal capacity will play a crucial role in global efforts to keep global warming under 1.5°C, positively impacting the lives of billions of people. And this is what we will do starting now.”