Carbon dioxide removal (CDR) is a necessity for the world to reach its Net Zero goals, particularly to compensate for industrial and process emissions which are impossible or very hard to mitigate. Given this demand, carbon removal startups will need to deliver substantial amount of negative emissions soon. Yet, little support for these ventures exists to this day.

 

Addressing this need, the Carbon Removal ClimAccelerator, jointly led by ETH Zurich’s Sustainability in Business Lab and the Technical University Delft and supported by EIT Climate-KIC as well as a range of other partners such as Munich Re and ERGO or the DOEN Foundation, accelerates European carbon removal startups from a variety of CDR pathways in Europe. It is the first startup program in Europe solely focused on CDR.

 

The 9-month-long program is centered around providing the early-stage startups with the entrepreneurial knowledge and skills, the understanding of the CDR market and the network in the CDR ecosystem required for them to develop and eventually scale their CDR solutions. In addition, the Carbon Removal ClimAccelerator supports the startups financially with non-dilutive grants. Since its inception in 2021, the accelerator has supported more than 60 startups and has received over 200 applications. Numerous startups have gone on to sell and realize their first volumes of carbon removal and raise significant external funding to scale their solutions.