INTERNATIONAL: Sky’s the limit in fighting global warming in space. An Israeli startup, High Hopes Labs, has joined the fight against global warming by seeking inspiration in the upper atmosphere, fighting global warming in space where it hopes to send fleets of balloons that will trap carbon dioxide for recycling.

While removing CO2 directly is usually a costly endeavor, the startup came up with a unique solution. High in the atmosphere, at cooler temperature, carbon is freezing in minus 80 degrees celcius and the only place that we can find carbon in a temperature close to that, is 15 kilometers above our heads. The greenhouse gas is captured in an almost-solid form. The frozen gas then returns to earth, where it can be recycled. The company already ran tests of the initiative on a small scale, using gas-filled balloons with boxes that serves as a carbon-capture device attached underneath.

Carbon dioxide emissions, from the burning of fossil fuels and from industrial agriculture, are the main cause of climate change. But removing CO2 from the atmosphere at standard temperatures requires too much energy for governments and companies to consider it cost-effective. The company aims to build larger balloons within two years that could each be deployed to remove a tonne of carbon a day at a cost below $100, much less than comparable on-ground facilities currently in use.

^{PHOTO:  ISRAELI STARTUP HIGH HOPES FLYING BALLOON WHICH CARRIES A BOX DESIGNED TO CAPTURE CARBON FROM THE AIR IN THE ATMOSPHERE, DURING A DEMO IN A FIELD IN CENTRAL ISRAEL / INTERVIEW WITH HIGH HOPES LABS FOUNDER AND CEO NADAV MANSDORF / HIGH HOPES LABS SCIENTISTS WORKING IN THE LAB}