Climeworks and Microsoft sign 10-year carbon removal agreement

Key take-aways:

Climeworks is excited to take its collaboration with Microsoft to the next level: following its selection as part of Microsoft’s carbon removal portfolio last year, the two companies have now closed a new 10-year carbon removal offtake agreement.
Such long-term commitments are crucial to help scale the carbon removal industry as it provides planning security to both sides and accelerates mainstream adoption.
Especially in the case of direct air capture (DAC), multi-year commitments strongly foster long-term financing efforts and thus not only support the scale-up of the technology, but of the whole ecosystem behind it.

Climeworks will remove 10'000 tons of CO₂ on behalf of Microsoft and becomes their first long-term, tech-based carbon removal supplier

In 2020, Microsoft announced its pioneering commitment to be carbon negative by 2030 and remove all of its historic CO₂ emissions by 2050. One year later, Climeworks’ carbon dioxide removal was the only DAC solution selected by Microsoft for its first carbon removal portfolio, after successfully passing an extensive review process.

Today, Climeworks is proud to take its collaboration with Microsoft one step further by becoming its first long-term carbon removal supplier. The two companies signed a 10-year carbon removal offtake agreement, where Climeworks will permanently remove 10’000 tons of CO₂ emissions from the atmosphere on Microsoft’s behalf. This second and forward-looking commitment is one of the largest DAC agreements ever signed and proof of Microsoft’s conviction of both Climeworks’ technology and ability to scale.

Lucas Joppa, Chief Environmental Officer at Microsoft

Microsoft’s multi-year offtake agreement with Climeworks is an important step towards realizing the ‘net’ in net zero. Our experience in purchasing renewable energy shows that long-term agreements can provide an essential foundation for society's race to scale new decarbonization technologies. Paired with Microsoft’s Climate Innovation Fund investment in Climeworks’ direct air capture plant, this agreement with Climeworks can help kickstart the commercial and technical progress in a nascent but crucial industry to achieve IPCC targets.

Christoph Gebald, co-CEO and co-founder of Climeworks

We are thrilled to sign our second carbon removal contract with Microsoft and work together in the long run. Long-term commitments like this multi-year agreement are crucial for scaling the DAC industry because the guaranteed demand catalyzes financing of our infrastructure and consequently accelerates the development of the required ecosystem for scaling DAC.