Tokyo (SCCIJ) – The Swiss banking group UBS from Zurich is helping to scale up the removal of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. With this goal in mind, UBS collaborates with two Swiss companies pioneering this approach to slow climate change.
UBS supports the capture of carbon dioxide in Iceland and the production of “green” concrete (© Climeworks).
Ambitious effort
As part of UBS’s commitment to achieving net-zero energy emissions from its operations by 2025, the Swiss banking group has concluded long-term collaborations with the companies Climeworks and neustark.
These long-term commitments provide planning security for this important industry, help to scale these technologies, and also send a strong signal to the market.
The volume of the agreements represents a substantial carbon removal contribution – in Europe and worldwide. Over the next 13 years, the aim is to remove 39,500 tonnes of CO₂ from the atmosphere.
“Green” concrete
The start-up neustark, a Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich (ETHZ) spin-off, has developed an environmentally friendly way to produce concrete, a large contributor to global warming. The new building material binds carbon dioxide previously removed from the atmosphere. The first construction projects are already being carried out, including an elementary school.
The Swiss startup based in the capital Bern came up with a technology that permanently binds captured CO2 in a granulate of demolition concrete. This granulate replaces sand and gravel in fresh concrete. As a result, less cement is required while keeping the properties of fresh concrete. Compared with conventional concrete, 25 kg of CO2 emissions are saved per cubic meter of fresh concrete.
Permanent disposal
Climeworks from Zurich Powered solely by renewable energy, Climeworks operates the world’s largest direct air capture and storage plant that permanently removes CO₂ from the air. Built in Iceland, Orca is the only plant that permanently disposes of the CO₂ rather than recycling it, as the other 15 installations Climeworks has built across Europe already.
Orca represents a milestone in the direct air capture industry with its capacity of capturing 4’000 tons of CO₂ per year and storing this greenhouse gas permanently. Also, the plant Orca sets a precedent for a high-quality, verifiable carbon removal market by being the first direct air capture and storage service with a validated process.
Partners for sustainability
Sabine Keller-Busse, President of UBS Switzerland, says: “Sustainability continues to be at the top of our clients’ agendas and, to be a credible partner, it is important that we demonstrate our continued commitment when it comes to the sustainability of our business activities.”
“With this commitment, UBS shows leadership in climate action and hopefully inspires others to follow suit. Long-term offtake contracts are a key enabler for the urgently needed scaleup of carbon dioxide removal technologies,“ says Valentin Gutknecht, co-founder and co-CEO of neustark.
“We are delighted to enter this long-term agreement with UBS. In the past months, the number of multi-year carbon removal agreements has increased rapidly. Such long-term commitments are central to our growth planning and enable us to scale up,” adds Christoph Gebald, co-founder and co-CEO of Climeworks.
Text: SCCIJ partly with UBS material
