Climeworks’ capture fails to cover its own emissions

Greg Rau

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May 15, 2025, 5:42:49 PM5/15/25

to Dioxide Removal Carbon

“ Climeworks in Iceland has only captured just over 2,400 carbon units since it began operations in the country in 2021, out of the twelve thousand units that company officials have repeatedly claimed the company’s machines can capture. This is confirmed by figures from the Finnish company Puro.Earth on the one hand and from the company’s annual accounts on the other. Climeworks has made international news for capturing carbon directly from the atmosphere. For this, the company uses large machines located in Hellisheiði, in South Iceland. They are said to have the capacity to collect four thousand tons of CO2 each year directly from the atmosphere.

According to data available to Heimildin, it is clear that this goal has never been achieved and that Climeworks does not capture enough carbon units to offset its own operations, emissions amounting to 1,700 tons of CO2 in 2023. The emissions that occur due to Climeworks' activities are therefore more than it captures. Since the company began capturing in Iceland, it has captured a maximum of one thousand tons of CO2 in one year.

The company's operations in Iceland rely entirely on funding from its Swiss parent company, Climeworks AG, but the Icelandic subsidiary's equity position was negative by almost $30 million in 2023. Poor performance in direct CO2 capture has caused a depreciation of the Orca capture machine of $1.4 million in 2023 as the capture plant did not meet expectations, according to the company's annual accounts.”

GR - Not a good look for the proclaimed poster child for CDR. Time to diversify the CDR RDD&D portfolio.

Klaus Lackner

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May 15, 2025, 6:21:39 PM5/15/25

to Greg Rau, Dioxide Removal Carbon

I’d be curious to know where all the emissions come from. Climeworks is supposed to use geothermal electricity and heat, neither one produces much CO2. So I find the number very surprising. I suspect the Climeworks internal numbers, which the report also claims come out badly, account for the carbon emissions associated with construction as well. At least that is how it should be done. It is likely that it takes a couple of years to work off this upfront debt. Unfortunately, if it comes to accounting, the article can’t be trusted on giving you real numbers, as it can’t even keep simple units straight. Whatever power Icelanders consume it is not measured in terwatt per year. So it would be nice to hear a better explanation of the accounting.

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Greg Rau

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May 15, 2025, 8:38:36 PM5/15/25

to Klaus Lackner, Dioxide Removal Carbon

Climeworks comment:

Climeworks is building an industry and has since day one been very… | Jan Wurzbacher | 12 comments

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On May 15, 2025, at 3:21 PM, Klaus Lackner <Klaus....@asu.edu> wrote:

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Dan Miller

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May 15, 2025, 10:36:15 PM5/15/25

to Greg Rau, Klaus Lackner, Dioxide Removal Carbon

I believe they include the emissions of running a company with several hundred people!

Dan

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On May 15, 2025, at 8:38 PM, Greg Rau <gh...@sbcglobal.net> wrote:

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Josh Perfetto

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May 16, 2025, 2:02:27 AM5/16/25

to Dan Miller, Greg Rau, Klaus Lackner, Dioxide Removal Carbon

I completely agree Dan. The article conflates the lifecycle emissions associated with a specific project with the overall emissions of an entire company. This comparison is analogous to criticizing the early manufacturers of solar cells—who initially produced them for portable radios and satellites—for not immediately powering all their operations with solar energy.

Arguably no company has done more to purchase CDR than the highly profitable Microsoft, but not even Microsoft is yet able to durably remove their yearly carbon emissions. And SBTi doesn't yet even recommend that companies try.

It's not reasonable to expect that startups like Climework do something that even Microsoft cannot, nor SBTi even recommends. The world seriously needs to do something about climate, but this is barking up the wrong tree.

-Josh