Our final project, currently underway, explores carbon capture—a nuanced and still-debated climate strategy that removes carbon dioxide directly from the atmosphere. At the world’s largest Direct Air Capture (DAC) facility, Mammoth in Iceland, that effort translates to removing 36,000 metric tons of CO₂ per year—the equivalent of taking about 8,600 cars off the road​. From a carbon economics standpoint, that removal comes at a steep cost—currently around $1,000 per ton. The central question we’re asking through this research is: Is this the right investment?

Our project began with an introduction to Climeworks, a climate-tech company based in Zurich, Switzerland, which officially launched its Mammoth DAC facility in May 2024. Located in Hellisheidi, Iceland, Mammoth is currently the world’s largest direct air capture plant—powered entirely by geothermal energy and designed to permanently remove tens of thousands of tons of CO₂ each year. Following that success, Climeworks CEO Jan Wurzbacher began expanding the company’s footprint in the United States, with joint-action projects underway in Oklahoma, Louisiana, and California as part of the U.S. Department of Energy’s DAC Hubs initiative. The upside? Large companies like Amazon and Microsoft can pay around $1,000 per ton to remove carbon from the atmosphere—effectively offsetting their emissions and buying a pathway toward net-zero.

But what of the pros and cons? On one hand, carbon capture offers the opportunity to actively remove legacy emissions from the atmosphere—tackling the excess carbon already baked into our climate system. But on the flip side, who's to say there aren't more impactful or equitable ways to decarbonize? And how much public or private funding will companies like Climeworks require before those investments translate into visible results — like cleaner air in the densely populated regions that need it most? The question we’re exploring now is whether carbon capture will emerge as a dominant climate solution, or whether it’s better suited to serve as a complementary tool while greater resources are directed toward deeper, more permanent decarbonization strategies.