Boston Consulting Group (BCG) announced today a purchase agreement with Direct Air Capture (DAC) company Climeworks. Spanning 15 years, the agreement is the largest corporate purchase announced to date by Climeworks at 80,000 metric tons of CO2 removal.

DAC technology, listed by the IEA as a key carbon removal option in the transition to a net-zero energy system, extracts CO2 directly from the atmosphere for use as a raw material or permanently removed when combined with storage. According to the landmark Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) climate change mitigation study released last year, scenarios that limit warming to 1.5°C include carbon dioxide removal methods scaling to billions of tons of removal annually over the coming decades, with DAC positioned to potentially account for a significant portion of the total.

The agreement marks the latest in a series of DAC purchases for BCG, including a 5-year, 40,000 ton deal announced earlier this year with DAC company CarbonCapture, and an initial agreement with Climeworks in 2021. As in the companies’ first agreement, under the new deal, BCG will also provide consulting services to Climeworks.

In addition to supporting Climeworks’ development, BCG added that the carbon removal agreement will support the firm’s net zero strategy. commitment to achieve net zero climate impact by 2030. BCG set a 2030 net zero target in 2020, alongside a goal to become climate positive beyond 2030, and outlined plans to significantly reduce its carbon footprint, and to offset the remainder of its emissions through investments in carbon removal projects and technologies. BCG also said at the time that it will work collaboratively with leading organizations around the world in developing and deploying the most advanced removal approaches.

David Webb, Chief Sustainability Officer of BCG, said:

“Without carbon removal, net zero is out of reach. This is true for BCG and across industries at large. It’s imperative that we start scaling carbon removal today, in particular high-quality solutions that are verifiable, additional, and permanent, to be able to meet the growing demand in the coming decades. Climeworks continues to be a driving force in carbon removal and is a valued partner on the path to BCG’s net zero target.”

Most solutions that capture and store CO2 are early stage and currently limited in scale, including DAC. Climeworks said that the new long-term partnership with BCG will support the acceleration of the global rollout of its DAC and storage plants, by providing planning security and fostering financing efforts.

Jan Huckfeldt, Chief Commercial Officer of Climeworks, said:

“Together with BCG, we’re redefining what carbon removal stewardship looks like with an agreement going all the way up to 2040. Long-term commitments defined the success of the solar energy transition and will undoubtedly become more frequent in our industry. It sets a precedent for other climate leaders understanding that carbon removal is a necessity and securing their share of supply early in this future trillion-dollar market.”