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Microsoft turns to Climeworks to deliver carbon capture techology
Microsoft has turned to Climeworks carbon dioxide removal technology as one of the key measures that will help with a mission to reach negative emissions by 2030 and remove the company s historic emissions by 2050.
Microsoft met and surpassed a target to secure the removal of one million metric tonnes of carbon
Swiss company Climeworks specialises in carbon dioxide air capture technology. The process sees CO
2 captured from air in Hellisheiði, Iceland through direct air capture technology. The CO2 is then mixed with water, pumped underground where it is stored permanently once a mineralisation process is completed.
On Wednesday this week, the concentration of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere was measured at at 415 parts per million (ppm). The level is the highest in human history, and is growing each year.
Amid all the focus on emissions reduction, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) says it will not be enough to avoid dangerous levels of global warming. The world must actively remove historical CO₂ already in the atmosphere - a process often described as “negative emissions”.
CO₂ removal can be done in two ways. The first is by enhancing carbon storage in natural ecosystems, such as planting more forests or storing more carbon in soil. The second is by using direct air capture (DAC) technology that strips CO₂ from the ambient air, then either stores it underground or turns it into products.
The Scottish government has committed to reviewing energy consenting in an updated climate plan looking at the country’s path to hit net zero by 2045.
An updated Electricity Generation Policy statement is expected by 2022 “reflecting the contribution that renewable electricity generation is likely to have to achieving our Net Zero target”, it said.
The paper published today,
Update to the Climate Change Plan: Securing a Green Recovery on a Path to Net Zero, lays out plans to take a “Whole System Energy Approach”, encouraging joined-up and collaborative thinking across sectors, particularly with regards to emerging technologies related to hydrogen, bioenergy and Negative Emissions Technologies.