Future

Solar energy, which is both abundant and free, is poised to become the world’s leading power source by 2050. That’s thanks largely to technological advances and the unbridled manufacturing of solar cells, which bodes well for a successful energy transition.

What do you do after having the most important job in the field of space research? After many years heading up research at NASA, Thomas Zurbuchen chose to come to ETH Zurich. But this career step is not as illogical as it might seem, as ETH Zurich aims to become Europe’s leading space research institution.

Exploring the climate crisis with Jérôme Chappellaz, environmental scientist and academic director of ALPOLE at EPFL.

If we want to achieve our climate goals and prevent irreversible changes to the Earth's climate system, we not only need to curb our greenhouse gas emissions, but also remove excess man-made CO₂ from the atmosphere. This is the aim of a new large-scale research initiative by Empa, Mining the Atmosphere. Peter Richner, Deputy Director of Empa, explains how to do this while creating a completely new economic system in the process. A new NEST unit, Beyond Zero, is also dedicated to CO₂-negative technologies, as is the current issue of the research magazine Empa Quarterly.