Swiss Re, a major reinsurance company has committed to a long-term partnership with Climeworks, a Swiss climate solutions company to directly remove carbon from the air. The collaboration is the world’s first 10-year carbon removal purchase agreement and is worth almost €8.5 million
Christoph Gebald, co-CEO and co-founder of Climeworks. Credit: Climeworks website
Swiss Re, a major reinsurance company has committed to a long-term partnership with Climeworks, a Swiss climate solutions company to directly remove carbon from the air. The collaboration is the world’s first 10-year carbon removal purchase agreement and is worth almost €8.5 million. The partnership is so far unrivalled in the voluntary carbon market for this kind of innovative, high-quality carbon removal in terms of the length and the total value of the agreement.
Partnering with a reinsurance company such as Swiss Re is of integral importance to Climeworks since the industry is at the forefront of assessing complex risk structures including those of climate change. Reinsurers are capable of structuring those risks and allocating them in an efficient way. Swiss Re’s unique long-term commitment emphasizes that an unfiltered climate solution like Climeworks’ technology is important to reach the Paris Agreement climate targets.
The agreement provides a structure for interested buyers to enter into similar purchase agreements with Climeworks. In this way, Swiss Re is generating demand signals to carbon removal solution providers and investors. Onboarding customers such as Swiss Re proves that a market for measurable and permanent carbon dioxide removals already exists and will grow significantly in the future. Bringing climate solutions to scale not only requires the right demand signals, but also de-risking and financing.
Christoph Gebald, co-CEO and co-founder of Climeworks, said: “We are very proud to have established the basis for a unique long-term partnership with the leading risk knowledge company Swiss Re. This is a decisive milestone for the scale-up of Climeworks and the direct air capture industry.”
Christian Mumenthaler, Swiss Re’s Group CEO and Co-Chair of the World Economic Forum’s Alliance of CEO Climate Leaders, said: “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.”
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