Swiss Federal Councillor Sommaruga visits Synhelion
This week, Swiss Minister of Environment, Transport, Energy, and Communications Simonetta Sommaruga visited Synhelion and Climeworks in Zurich. She was accompanied by member of the National Council Tomas Hurter, Cantonal Councillor Martin Neukom, and Pascal Previdoli, the Deputy Director of the Swiss Federal Office of Energy.
Federal Councillor Sommaruga wanted to learn firsthand about the potential of CO2 capture from air and solar fuels and the role of these technologies in climate action. The delegation first toured Climeworks’ direct air capture facility in Hinwil, Switzerland, and then went on a virtual tour of our test facility at the Jülich Solar Tower. The tours were followed by a very constructive discussion about our scaleup roadmaps, suitable support mechanisms, and the next steps for the rollout of our technologies.
At the end of her visit, Sommaruga said: “I have wanted to make this visit for a long time. I am pleased to see that we have two companies in Switzerland that can make a significant contribution to solving our global CO2 problem and, at the same time, create jobs and export opportunities for the Swiss industry. Climeworks and Synhelion have the potential to grow immensely and to make a global contribution to removing CO2 out of the atmosphere and enable flying with carbon-neutral fuels in the future. I am proud that we have such companies in Switzerland. These innovative companies work hard, they want to export, they want to expand, and we can support them with politics. Policymakers can create clear framework conditions so that these companies know what lies ahead. We can, for example, introduce a blending quota for synthetic fuels in aviation to help create a new market. Politics and companies that offer solutions to reduce CO2 emissions need to work together. This visit has shown that there is huge potential.”
After the visit, Sommaruga travelled to Glasgow to attend the United Nations Climate Change Conference. It was a pleasure and an honor to host her and we hope that we could inspire her with our mission to decarbonize transportation.
