Swiss Re, Climeworks sign 10-year carbon removal deal

Reinsurer Swiss Re (SWX:SREN) and Climeworks, a Zurich-based company specialising in carbon dioxide air capture technology, have signed a ten-year purchase agreement for direct air capture and storage of carbon dioxide worth USD 10 million (EUR 8.52m).

The deal will help Swiss Re achieve its target for net-zero emissions in its own operations by the end of the decade and give it access to the new carbon removal risk pools and asset classes, the reinsurance company said on Wednesday.

”To mitigate the risks of climate change, the world needs to scale-up carbon removal on top of, not instead of emission reductions. By partnering with Climeworks we can play to our strengths in this endeavour, as a risk taker, investor, and forward-looking buyer of climate solutions,” said Swiss Re's chief executive Christian Mumenthaler.

For Climeworks, the partnership is of significant importance for the scale-up of the company as it uses costly technology and needs long-term contracts to realise more economical facilities.

Climeworks, founded by engineers Christoph Gebald and Jan Wurzbacher, develops, builds and operates direct air capture (DAC) machines to capture carbon dioxide directly from the air. The technology, which uses clean energy, enables the permanent removal of the greenhouse gas from the air which is then either recycled or reused as a raw material, or it can be stored in rock layers where it takes part in the formation of stable carbonate minerals.

(USD 1.0 = EUR 0.852)

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