Sustainability/News/ Climeworks’ $650m raise signals carbon capture’s mainstream arrival Orca, Climeworks' carbon dioxide removal plant based in Iceland, is the largest in the world. By Freya Pratty 5 April 2022 \Sustainability Why your fund should hire a head of research By Freya Pratty 18 May 2022 Sustainability/News/ Climeworks’ $650m raise signals carbon capture’s mainstream arrival Orca, Climeworks' carbon dioxide removal plant based in Iceland, is the largest in the world. By Freya Pratty 5 April 2022 Climeworks, a Swiss carbon dioxide removal startup, has raised a $650m round — the largest investment ever into a carbon capture startup. The round was led by Partners Group and GIC alongside a long list of other investors, including Baillie Gifford, M&G and Swiss Re. It brings the total Climeworks has raised to over $800m. Climeworks is based in Switzerland but its direct air capture and storage plant, known as Orca, is in Iceland. Orca launched in September 2021 and is the largest carbon capture device in the world. The investment announcement comes a day after the IPCC released its latest report, which stressed the urgent need for both nature-based and tech-enabled carbon capture if the world is to stay within 1.5°C of heating. “If global temperature temporarily overshoots 1.5°C, carbon dioxide removal would be required to reduce the atmospheric concentration of CO2 to bring global temperature back down,” the report says. The report’s lead author Heleen De Coninck said yesterday that current models will need carbon dioxide removal from 2050 onwards. The carbon dioxide captured by Orca is either stored in the ground or turned into fuels and materials. It can currently capture around 4,000 tonnes each year. The new investment will be used to scale that figure, building a new plant and aiming to capture over a million tonnes by 2030. Climate scientists have differing views on the role that carbon dioxide removal can play. “It’s still expensive, still only at the pilot stage, and there’s still lots of technical and environmental questions, but this is essential technology,” Sam Fankhauser, professor of climate economics and policy at the University of Oxford, told Sifted. “Most modelled decarbonisation pathways contain a lot of carbon dioxide removal, so it is good to see these technologies emerging.” Others are sceptical that the tech can be brought to scale in time to have an impact. “At the moment, I don’t see how they could be brought to scale in the time required to balance the books of our emissions on the one hand, and our obligations from the various climate agreements on the other,” Matthew Menary, climate scientist at the Ecole Normale Supérieure in Paris, said. Freya Pratty is a reporter at Sifted. She tweets from @FPratty and writes our sustainability-focused newsletter — you can sign up here Related Articles XYZ Reality raises £20m to build AR for construction industry By Kit Gillet in Bucharest Click here to read more How are Europe’s startups capturing carbon? By Connor Bilboe Click here to read more DeepMind exec Andrew Eland leaves to launch startup By Sam Shead Click here to read more How big is Sweden’s impact startup sector? We crunched the numbers Sponsored by Business Sweden Click here to read more Most Read 1 \Venture Capital Carmen Rico launches Cocoa Ventures, a VC fund designed to act like an angel 2 Member \Startup Life Gender pay gap at UK unicorns: Monzo improves but major imbalance at Revolut 3 Member \Fintech Meet the women leading Europe’s top fintechs 4 \Consumer Flink acquires Cajoo as speedy grocery consolidation gathers pace 5 \Deeptech Here’s what happened when four Polish seniors founded a quantum startup Join the conversation Subscribe Notify of new follow-up comments new replies to my comments
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