About Mining the Atmosphere
To meet climate targets and avoid irreversible changes to our environment, it is not enough to reduce our emissions – we must also actively remove excess CO₂ from the atmosphere. This calls for a new industrial paradigm: using CO₂ as a raw material to produce high-volume products that can replace conventional building materials and petrochemicals.
Empa's Mining the Atmosphere initiative develops scalable technologies that enable this transition – turning CO₂ as the raw material of the future into valuable materials and driving the shift towards a circular, climate-positive industry.
The Earth is heading towards climate collapse. Each year, approximately 9.4 billion tons of carbon are released into the atmosphere as CO₂. Natural processes, particularly those involving vegetation and oceans, can only partially offset these emissions. As a result, there remains an annual surplus of around 5.1 billion tons of atmospheric carbon. Since 1988, the concentration of CO₂ in the atmosphere has exceeded the critical threshold of 350 ppm (parts per million), which is considered the limit for climate stability. If CO₂ levels continue to surpass this limit, the Earth's climate system risks tipping into a state with potentially irreversible consequences.