Swiss firm's technology may defeat global warming

London

CLIMEWORKS AG is not the first company to figure out how to suck carbon dioxide out of the air. It may become the first to make money from it at an industrial scale.

The Swiss company plans to remove 1,000 tonnes a year of the greenhouse gas from the atmosphere when its first commercial plant starts working this summer near its headquarters in Zurich. That's about the same as the carbon footprint of 200 British residents.

"Our units are actually pretty low tech," said Christoph Gebald, co-founder at Climeworks. "They are steel boxes with two openings and a fan that pulls air t…