Irish firm aims to combat climate change with carbon-eating mechanical trees

Carbon Collect, whose ideas are based on proposals by German physicist Klaus Lackner, want to install fields of 10-metre-high ‘trees’ to capture carbon dioxide from the atmosphere

It is claimed the ‘mechanical trees’ could not only tackle the level of emissions produced each year, but also begin to chip away at the enormous volumes of carbon dioxide from the past two centuries of industrialisation

It’s a beguiling idea: a glistening steel column, ten metres tall when fully extended, filled with chemical-soaked tiles that simply draw carbon dioxide from the air, reducing emissions and slowing global warming.

According to an Irish company called Carbon Collect, that “mechanical tree” – based on a design first mooted by German physicist Klaus Lackner – could not only tackle the level of emissions produced each year, but also begin to chip away at the ...