Carbon removal and carbon neutrality

Carbon removal & carbon neutrality

Taking action for net-zero operations

The carbon removal market is the key to meeting net-zero commitments, once science-based targets for reducing emissions have been met. The Zurich Insurance Group (Zurich) recognizes the need for urgent action to help accelerate carbon removal market growth and aims to inspire other companies to take similar action by supporting emerging solutions and being transparent about our approach.

A carbon removal certificate is an independently verified document that confirms that 1 metric ton of CO2-equivalent (CO2e) has been removed from the atmosphere and stored for the long-term using a verified removal method. The certificate is issued to the supplier and purchased by a buyer who wants to remove their residual emissions in a credible way. The certificate must then be retired to ensure a unique and credible carbon removal claim.

Carbon removal certification schemes are still under development by various organizations and so certificates are not widely available. Zurich has so far sourced carbon removal certificates issued by Puro.earth which certifies companies operating carbon net-negative processes or products based on the Puro Standard. Removal is independently verified by a third party and CO2 Removal Certificates (CORCs) are issued through the Puro Registry. Our engagement with Puro.earth enables us to learn more quickly about emerging best practices. This is important in terms of calculation methodologies, auditing, understanding claims of permanence and ongoing project monitoring in an emerging industry that currently lacks globally consistent quality-assurance frameworks. Where removal solutions do not fall under the Puro.earth certification standard, we require projects to demonstrate strong scientific credentials such as a documented life cycle analysis.

We have also sourced carbon removal certificates issued by Plan Vivo and Verra. Plan Vivo is a certification body that certifies projects against the Plan Vivo Carbon Standard (PV Climate) for community and smallholder land-use and forestry projects. Certified PV Climate projects can issue Plan Vivo Certificates (PVCs). Each PVC represents one metric ton of CO2e emission removal alongside other non-carbon benefits (climate adaptation, biodiversity protection, water provision, etc.). Verra operates the Verified Carbon Standard (VCS) Program and once certified, projects are eligible to be issued Verified Carbon Units (VCUs), with one VCU representing one metric tonne of carbon dioxide removed from the atmosphere.

Besides contracts for the supply of carbon removal certificates from established projects, Zurich also partners with early-stage but highly promising carbon-removal companies. Most of our contracts are structured as pre purchase agreements, meaning Zurich commits to buy and makes partial payments upfront for carbon removal certificates that have not yet been produced.

These upfront payments provide essential funding and help unlock external investment or debt financing from banks by demonstrating clear customer demand for the service. This support enables projects to launch or scale their operations more effectively. Further payments are released as each project achieves specific, pre agreed contractual milestones. To manage risks and ensure successful delivery, we conduct thorough due diligence before partnering and closely monitor progress against these milestones throughout the project lifecycle.

Through our pre-purchasing agreements, we aim to ramp up our supply of carbon-removal certificates to eliminate the same amount of CO2e as we produce 2030 onwards.

Anja-Lea Fischer

Head of Operational Sustainability

No time to wait

We have been an active buyer in carbon removal markets since 2022, aiming to be ready by 2030 and onwards to eliminate at least the same amount of CO2e that we produce with our operations¹. By having an accelerated net-zero target year of 2030 for operational emissions, we are highlighting the urgency of making substantial emissions cuts and the need to invest in removal solutions today.

Zurich’s approach is to identify promising carbon removal suppliers and provide financial support by purchasing carbon removal certificates, enabling these companies to scale up their solutions.

While there is some risk in supporting early-stage projects, we believe early action is essential to help these innovators grow and contribute to our climate targets.

We recognize that achieving net-zero will require a diverse range of carbon removal solutions. No single approach can meet this challenge alone. Nature and technology-based solutions will all play an important role in reaching global climate targets.

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has made it clear that achieving net-zero means reducing emissions as much as possible, as well as balancing out any that remain by removing an equivalent amount.

The report¹ finds that limiting global warming to 1.5°C would require “rapid and far-reaching” transitions in land, energy, industry, buildings, transport, and cities. Global net human-caused emissions of carbon dioxide (CO2) would need to fall by about 45 percent from 2010 levels by 2030, reaching ‘net zero’ around 2050. This means that any remaining emissions would need to be balanced by removing CO2 from the air.

¹ https://www.ipcc.ch/2018/10/08/summary-for-policymakers-of-ipcc-special-report-on-global-warming-of-1-5c-approved-by-governments/

The urgency of the situation means we need to be proactive and help scale up the carbon removal industry, which is still in its infancy.

Linda Freiner

Chief Sustainability Officer

Solutions we support

Zurich’s journey toward net-zero began with nature-based solutions. As we’ve expanded our efforts, we signed our first pre-purchase agreement for tech-based removal using direct air capture. We’ve also added enhanced rock weathering and bought certificates from both mangrove restoration and agroforestry projects, bringing reforestation and ecosystem restoration into our carbon removal portfolio.

Taking a portfolio approach by combining a diverse mix of removal solutions is aligned with climate science and helps us manage risk while supporting the development of the broad range of removal methods needed for a net-zero future. Both nature-based and technology-driven removal methods play a vital role in locking away carbon for the long term.

Nature-based solutions

Agroforestry

Agroforestry is the intentional planting of trees and shrubs around or among crops or pasture in order to create more diverse, productive, healthy, and sustainable approaches to farming. Planting trees and shrubs on previously cleared land sequesters carbon and is an important tool to increase the resilience of communities with a high exposure to the physical impacts of climate change. Resilience is increased since planting of trees and shrubs helps to reduce soil erosion, improve soil structure and fertility create wildlife habitatand increase biodiversity.

Trees planted using agroforestry techniques can also produce a renewable source of wood, fruits, nuts, and other products. Agroforestry practices are especially valuable techniques in Sub-Saharan Africa where there is a high volume of smallholder farmers who have a low level of resilience to the physical impact of climate change.

Biochar

Biochar is a charcoal-like substance made by burning organic material from agricultural or forestry waste (or biomass) with a limited supply of oxygen and at relatively low temperatures (5-800 degrees C).

This process, called pyrolysis, means the organic matter does not combust. Instead, it transforms the carbon dioxide that a plant absorbs during photosynthesis into a very stable form of carbon that can’t easily escape into the atmosphere. This avoids the carbon captured by the plant being emitted when the plant decays.

Organic waste used to make biochar includes woodchips, grass, crop residues, leaf litter, dead plants, trees, manure—and even algae. This means biochar’s chemical composition can vary depending on the feedstock and the methods used to heat it. However, on average, about 70 percent of its composition is carbon.

Biochar can remain in soil for centuries, even thousands of years, making it an ideal technology for scalable carbon removal.

In addition to storing the carbon inside organic material and preventing it from turning into carbon dioxide, biochar offers a range of environmental and social benefits.

When applied to certain types of soil, biochar can improve water retention, moderate soil acidity, reduce nutrient leaching, and lower the need for irrigation and fertilizer. These benefits decrease the environmental impact of agriculture and help make this critical industry more sustainable.

By enhancing soil structure and fertility, biochar not only boosts crop yields but also helps agricultural systems better withstand the impacts of climate change, such as drought or extreme weather—thereby strengthening the resilience of society as a whole.

Biomass burial

Carbon dioxide in the air, which plants convert into carbohydrates by photosynthesis, is returned to the atmosphere when plants die and decay. What if we could sequester the carbon locked up in trees in such a way that it doesn’t get released back into the atmosphere when the tree is no longer alive?

That’s the premise behind the biomass burial solution. In this approach trees are planted in order to capture carbon. Once grown, the tree above ground is harvested and the collected biomass buried underground in a sealed cavity. The aim is to permanently store the carbon captured within the biomass. As the roots of the tree are left in the ground, the tree will re-grow and in time, be harvested again, allowing the burial process to be repeated to capture and permanently store carbon for hundreds of years.

The cycle of grow-harvest-bury-grow acts as an effective atmospheric CO2e pump, capable of removing significantly more CO2e per area of land compared to replanting trees to create a new forest. This allows high-rainfall, high-productivity farmland to be used for food and fiber production while still addressing climate change. When the right conditions are maintained after burial, the CO2e contained within the underground biomass can be permanently sequestered. This approach also improves soil quality, prevents soil erosion and desertification, restores lost plant and animal habitats, and addresses groundwater over-recharge. Groundwater over-recharge is a major cause of secondary salination and a key factor in the degradation of arable land, especially in Western Australia.

Enhanced Rock Weathering

Enhanced Rock Weathering (ERW) is a carbon removal method that speeds up the natural process of weathering, where rocks break down and chemically react with carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. In this process, silicate or carbonate minerals are ground into fine particles and spread over large areas of land, such as farms. When these minerals dissolve in rainwater, they react with CO₂ to form stable carbonate compounds, helping to capture and store carbon.

In addition to removing carbon ERW brings a range of benefits for sustainable land management and healthy ecosystems. Importantly, ERW can help increase crop yields and strengthen resilience to climate change by improving soil health, making it a promising approach for building a more sustainable future for food production and land use.

ERW greatly accelerates the natural weathering process to remove atmospheric carbon dioxide. This is achieved by crushing or grinding rocks and minerals to a fine powder to increase the total surface area of the material that is available to effectively capture and store carbon. The material is also applied to agricultural soils where the concentration of carbon dioxide is up to 10 times higher than in the atmosphere. Once the material is applied to agricultural land that has sufficient moisture and is of a suitable pH, it begins to break down, permanently removing carbon dioxide that was within the atmosphere. Carbon removal occurs when rainwater, a diluted form of carbonic acid contained in the soil weathers the silicate, hydroxide and carbonate minerals in the material, creating calcium cations and bicarbonate anions. This bicarbonate anion is a stable store of carbon. Both the bicarbonate and calcium ions remain in solution in surface and ground waters before flowing to the ocean, where they have a residence time of 80,000 years¹. On average, after 80,000 years, the negatively charged bicarbonate ions bond with the positively charged calcium ions to precipitate limestone on the ocean floor, leading to carbon removal lasting millennia. By analysing soil, soil waters and gas fluxes across the land where the material was applied it is possible to quantify using geochemical models, the rate and volume of CO₂ removed from the atmosphere.

ERW offers numerous benefits beyond carbon sequestration, particularly in agriculture and environmental protection. It improves soil fertility and health by adding essential nutrients and regulating pH levels, which enhances crop growth and water retention. This process also supports plant resistance to pests and diseases, reduces the need for synthetic fertilizers, and prevents soil erosion. Additionally, ERW can mitigate ocean acidification by increasing water alkalinity and immobilize heavy metals, reducing their toxicity. These benefits collectively promote sustainable land management, enhance biodiversity, and contribute to overall ecosystem health.

¹ Berner et al, 1983. The carbonate-silicate geochemical cycle and its effect on atmospheric carbon dioxide over the past 100 million years, American Journal of Science.

Mangrove restoration

Mangrove restoration is recognized as an effective carbon removal solution due to its ability to sequester large amounts of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. Mangroves, which are salt-tolerant trees that thrive in coastal regions, play a crucial role in mitigating climate change by capturing carbon in their biomass and the surrounding soil.

Restoring degraded mangrove areas not only enhances carbon storage but also provides numerous co-benefits, such as protecting coastlines from erosion, supporting biodiversity, and sustaining the livelihoods of local communities. Consequently, we see mangrove restoration as a nature-based solution that mitigates the impacts of climate change and increases resilience against its physical effects.

In addition to its carbon sequestration benefits, mangrove restoration plays a vital role in enhancing coastal resilience and ecosystem health. Mangroves serve as natural barriers against storm surges, hurricanes, and tsunamis, reducing the risk of flooding and protecting inland areas from severe weather events. Their complex root systems stabilize shorelines by trapping sediments and preventing coastal erosion. Furthermore, mangroves create rich habitats for a wide variety of marine and terrestrial species, fostering biodiversity and supporting fisheries that are crucial for local economies. The restoration of these ecosystems also promotes water quality by filtering pollutants and trapping sediments, which benefits both marine life and human communities. Implementing mangrove restoration projects involves community engagement, sustainable management practices, and long-term monitoring to ensure the successful recovery and maintenance of these vital ecosystems.

Our projects and partners

Australia

Biomass Burial

On degraded, low rainfall, and previously cleared farmland in Western Australia, InterEarth plants native species that produce woody biomass, well suited to the arid climate. This biomass is grown, harvested, and then buried in sealed underground cavities to permanently store the carbon it has captured.

In addition to their own biomass, InterEarth also accepts certain waste woody biomass from third parties, especially material at high risk of being left to decompose or fueling wildfires. By burying biomass, InterEarth prevents decomposition and the release of carbon back into the atmosphere, while also helping to reduce wildfire risks—supporting a safer and more sustainable environment.

Biomass burial works by taking plant material that has absorbed carbon dioxide from the air and burying it in places where it won’t easily break down. This prevents the biomass from decomposing and releasing carbon back into the atmosphere, so the carbon stays safely buried.

Compared to other carbon removal solutions, biomass burial is relatively straightforward—it uses natural processes and doesn’t need complex technology. However, it does require careful monitoring to make sure the biomass remains stored for the long term and doesn’t start to decompose underground. Inter-Earth carefully monitor their burial sites with sensors and carry out sampling.

Zurich originally signed a pre-purchase agreement with InterEarth in 2022, making upfront payments and further contributions as the project met pre-agreed milestones. In 2025 InterEarth delivered its first carbon removal certificates to Zurich—six months ahead of schedule.

Oregon, USA

Forest waste to biochar

Another part of the jigsaw can be found in Oregon, USA.

Oregon Biochar Solutions produces high-quality biochar, mainly sourced from forestry waste, including fire hazard biomass and forest fire burnt wood.

Removing forest waste material reduces the risk of future fires and puts waste material to productive use. The company also donates some of its revenues to the local fire department.

The company is already producing biochar, most of which is sold to farms, and has the capacity to scale up to produce more than 3,000 metric tons per year. It plans to use the revenue derived from the sale of carbon removal certificates to pass cost savings on to local farmers and entrepreneurs looking to integrate clean products into their supply chain. Biochar carbon removal certificates therefore increase the accessibility of biochar for buyers who have not been using it until now because of its price.

By supplying more biochar to this market, Oregon Biochar Solutions enables more farmers to benefit from the added value of biochar sequestration in soils. This usage results in better and healthier soils, water savings, and reduced fertilizer usage. These effects benefit the local community and help maintain biodiversity.

Oregon Biochar will also use the revenue derived from carbon removal certificates to invest in equipment to meet a backlog of orders. Further down the road, the company hopes to operate more biochar production facilities across the USA.

Through its purchase of carbon removals from Oregon Biochar Solutions, Zurich enables more farmers to use biochar and supports the implementation of sustainable agriculture practices. Additionally, Zurich contributes to the management of forests in an area prone to fires.

Georgia, USA

Paper mill waste to Biochar

Wakefield BioChar supplies high-quality biochar derived from waste biomass generated by paper mills during their production processes. In normal circumstances, the biochar is burnt to produce energy, releasing the carbon within the biomass into the atmosphere. The revenue provided by the sale of carbon removal certificates by Wakefield BioChar, provides the financing necessary to sequester permanently the biochar from residual biomass for application to degraded land as part of a remediation project agreed with the local and state authorities and the landowner. In this case, the biochar was mixed with lime and used as an amendment to neutralize pollutants, restore soil health and improve drainage. Native plant species were then planted on the remediated land to restore the biodiversity of the site.

By purchasing carbon removal certificates from Wakefield Biochar, Zurich enables CO2 to be removed from the atmosphere and supports the restoration of degraded land for the benefit of the planet and the local community.

Puerto Rico

Bamboo to Biochar

In the southwest of Puerto Rico, not far from the small town of Hormigueros, a startup called Bio Restorative Ideas plans to convert bamboo to biochar on the site of a former sugar cane factory.

Bamboo is a rapidly growing grass and when fallen and broken, particularly along waterways and roadways, causes blockages, flooding and erosion.

Bio Restorative Ideas hopes to transform about 7,000 metric tons of this waste and invasive bamboo into 3,000 metric tons of high-quality biochar while creating about 15-20 local jobs.

The resulting biochar will be used to improve soil health in terms of nutrient availability and drought resilience. Additional applications are also being considered such as an additive to concrete or other building materials, environmental remediation or water and wastewater filtration.

If all goes according to plan, production could start towards the end of 2022.

Zurich is attracted to this project because it will use waste bamboo as a feedstock for the pyrolysis process that would otherwise be burnt, emitting CO2, or fermented, emitting methane. In Puerto Rico, bamboo management is a challenge as the invasive, non-native plant grows and spreads rapidly and often causes blockages in rivers, leading to floods. The bamboo harvesting will support flood resilience in Puerto Rico as fallen bamboo blocks waterways and creates drainage issues, also in emergency response scenarios caused by storms.

The project will help create good quality jobs and support the transition to new economies in an area where industrial activity ceased with the closure of the sugar cane plant more than 20 years ago.

In addition, the use of biochar in agriculture aligns with Zurich’s push for adoption of sustainable agriculture practices and can help to reduce use of fertilizers and water whilst supporting soil quality improvements.

Bio Restorative Ideas is in development phase and has not yet started biochar production. Zurich’s pre-purchases are partly funding its growth and scale up. We have made some up-front payments which will be passed onto the producer to support its development.

If this supplier can find buyers that agree to the future purchase of its carbon removals, its project can be implemented quicker and also begin to expand in other locations.

By getting involved at an early stage, Zurich’s pre-purchases support the development of the biochar carbon removal industry which might not happen without the early adoption of such solutions by a corporate leader. Before making pre-purchases Zurich carries out its own due diligence to verify the operational plans of projects it supports are in place and key criteria are met. In particular, Bio Restorative Ideas has demonstrated exceptional risk analysis, that has, for example, led to the development of a completely mobile solution to relocate the entire facility in the event of a natural disaster.

Ireland

Enhanced Rock Weathering

Silicate Carbon Limited (Silicate) is based in Ireland. Their business purpose is to permanently remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere through the technique of Enhanced Rock Weathering. Silicate’s process involves grinding primarily returned concrete to a fine powder and then spreading this material to agricultural land. Using this material for ERW purposes is an effective use of a waste product that has an abundant supply. It also has a range of other benefits beyond carbon removal as the material has the capability to improve soil fertility and health by adding essential nutrients and regulating pH levels, which enhances crop growth and water retention. This process also supports plant resistance to pests and diseases, reducing the need for synthetic fertilizers, and prevents soil erosion. Additionally, ERW can mitigate ocean acidification by increasing water alkalinity and immobilize heavy metals, reducing their toxicity. These benefits collectively promote sustainable land management, enhance biodiversity, and contribute to overall benefits for people and planet.

The composition of concrete varies depending on how it is made, but it always contains two principal components: cement and aggregate. Cement, the liquid part of concrete, contains high calcium concentrations that are primarily hosted in fast-weathering minerals such as portlandite and amorphous calcium silicates - perfect for rapid carbon drawdown. The aggregate (chunks of rock) that makes up the rest of concrete is determined by the local rock sources. Carbonate rocks, such as limestone, and silicate rocks, like basalt, are commonly used. Just like cement, both limestone and the olivine component of basalt will remove atmospheric carbon dioxide when weathered, although their carbon removal capacities and weathering rates differ.

Silicate take field measurements of soil, soil waters and gas fluxes across the land where the material was applied in order to ground-truth and validate geochemical models which calculate the rate and volume of CO₂ removed from the atmosphere. Silicate’s carbon removal will be quantified in accordance with the Puro Standard and independently verified by a third party. CO₂ Removal Certificates (CORCs) resulting from Silicate’s activities will be issued through the Puro Registry.

Zurich has signed a multi-year pre purchase agreement with Silicate to remove a part of Zurich’s unavoidable carbon emissions and have already made some advance payments that provides access to funding to support the growth and scale up of Silicate’s business and operations. Further payments are based on Silicate achieving pre-agreed contractual milestones.

Wales, UK

Nellie Technologies

Nellie Technologies Limited (Nellie) is based in Wales UK. Their business purpose is to permanently remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere by creating a biochar from micro-algae. Nellie have developed proprietary technology to rapidly and efficiently grow micro-algae in a photobioreactor. Once grown the micro-algae can be collected, dried and then used to create biochar which is then applied to agricultural land as a soil amendment. The advantage of Nellie’s approach is the novel use of micro-algae as a feedstock for biochar production which grows rapidly and can be harvested more frequently than conventional biomass sources, micro-algae also has potential to produce higher yields of biochar compared to traditional biomass and does not compete with food crops for arable land since it can be carried out on so called ‘grey belt’ land.

Zurich has signed a multi-year pre purchase agreement with Nellie to remove a part of Zurich’s unavoidable carbon emissions. The amount of carbon removed by Nellie will be quantified in accordance with the Puro Standard and independently verified by a third party. CO2 Removal Certificates (CORCs) resulting from Nellie’s activities will be issued through the Puro Registry. Zurich has already made advance payments that provides access to funding to support the growth and scale up of Nellie’s business and operations. Further payments are based on Nellie achieving pre-agreed contractual milestones.

England, UK

O.C.O Technology

O.C.O Technology Group Limited (OCO) is based in England, UK. Their business specializes in carbon removal through the production of carbon-negative building materials. Their process transforms Air Pollution Control Residue (APCr)—a potentially hazardous industrial by-product that is typically landfilled—into durable construction aggregates. The carbonation process uses some biogenic CO₂, principally sourced from agricultural waste from a local farm, but the majority of carbon removal is achieved during a curing phase in which the aggregates absorb atmospheric CO₂ directly from the surrounding air. The captured carbon is then permanently stored within the building materials.

This approach delivers multiple benefits for climate and society. It supports circular economy principles by repurposing industrial waste and reducing demand for conventional raw materials. Additionally, converting APCr into stable building products reduces the risks associated with landfilling hazardous waste, contributing to safer waste management and safeguarding communities against pollution risks.

Zurich has signed a multi-year pre-purchase agreement with O.C.O Technology to buy carbon removal certificates generated from the production of these carbon-negative building products. The amount of carbon removed will be quantified in accordance with the Puro Standard and independently verified by a third party. CO2 Removal Certificates (CORCs) resulting from OCO Technology’s activities will be issued through the Puro Registry. Through this collaboration, Zurich is supporting innovative carbon removal and circular economy solutions, helping to reduce the risks posed by hazardous waste and accelerate the transition to a low-carbon built environment.

Switzerland

Direct Air Capture

Climeworks is a Swiss company that empowers people and companies to fight global warming by offering carbon dioxide removal as a service via direct air capture (DAC) technology. At Orca, Climeworks’ DAC facility in Iceland, the CO₂ is permanently removed from the air by capturing and geologically storing it for thousands of years with Climeworks’ storage partner Carbfix.

Climeworks’ DAC facilities run exclusively on clean energy, and their modular CO₂ collectors can be stacked to build machines of any capacity. Founded by engineers Christoph Gebald and Jan Wurzbacher in 2009, Climeworks is on a journey to climate impact at scale. To do so, it strives to inspire 1 billion people to act and remove CO₂ from the air.

Climeworks develops, builds and operates direct air capture (DAC) machines that remove CO₂ from the air. Climeworks’ facilities consist of CO₂ collectors that selectively capture carbon dioxide in a two-step process. First, air is drawn into the collector with a fan. Carbon dioxide is captured on the surface of a highly selective filter material that sits inside the collectors. Second, after the filter material is full with carbon dioxide, the collector is closed and the temperature is increased to around 100 °C - this releases the carbon dioxide. Finally, thehigh-purity, high-concentration carbon dioxide is collected and handed over for permanent storage. For its flagship facility Orca, the world's largest direct air capture and storage plant, Climeworks has joined forces with the Icelandic company Carbfix. Carbfix has a strong scientific backbone and is one of the world's experts in rapid underground mineralization of carbon dioxide.

Located near the Hellisheiði geothermal power plant, which provides the renewable energy needed to run the Climeworks machines, Orca removes up to 4'000 tons of carbon dioxide per year. Carbfix mixes the carbon dioxide that Orca captures with water and pumps it deep underground. Through natural mineralization, the carbon dioxide reacts with the basalt rock and turns into stone within a few years.

We have signed a multi-year pre-purchase agreement with Climeworks to remove a part of our unavoidable CO₂ emissions. Consistent with the approach taken with the other carbon removal projects that we have selected, we have already made some advance payments that provide access to funding to support the growth and scale up of Climeworks’ business and operations.

Uganda