The phenomenon of global warming is driving startups to capture CO2 from the atmosphere and turn it into profitable products.
Diamonds, building materials, and even sportswear—what do these products have to do with climate change? The answer is that all of them can be created by recycling carbon dioxide (CO2), a greenhouse gas that accumulates in the atmosphere and contributes to global warming. As a result, the tech startups behind these transformations are attracting the attention of investors.
This startup aims to produce diamonds that provide tangible benefits for the environment, the planet, and humanity.
Aether Diamonds, based in New York, is the first company to create diamonds in a laboratory by recycling CO2. Founder and CEO Ryan Shearman states that Aether Diamonds aims to remove 20 tons of CO2 from the atmosphere for every carat of diamond they sell.
“Unlike natural diamonds or conventional lab-grown diamonds, we are not here to argue about which process harms the planet the least; we are flipping that model. We produce diamonds that provide tangible benefits for the environment, the planet, and humanity,” Shearman emphasized.
Twelve contributes to combating climate change by breaking down the greenhouse gas CO2. (Video: Reuters)
In addition to Aether Diamonds and Twelve, the Canadian sportswear company lululemon Athletica Inc (LULU.O) is also collaborating with the biotech company LanzaTech to develop a process for producing polyester fibers from carbon emissions.
They use bacteria to ferment carbon monoxide (CO) from steel mills into ethanol. The ethanol is then used to produce everything from plastic bottles to polyester. LanzaTech CEO Jennifer Holmgren emphasized that without capturing and recycling, CO would ultimately be burned and released into the environment as the greenhouse gas CO2.
Investment in carbon technology is booming, with companies in this field raising over $800 million in 2021, more than triple the amount raised in 2020, according to a Reuters assessment of data from PitchBook, the Carbon Network, Cleantech Group, and Climate Tech VC.
