Experts pull diamonds out of thin air in eco-triumph

ETHICAL diamonds made from carbon sucked out of the air have been created for the first time in the UK.

The team behind the project, which uses a sky mining facility to extract carbon from the atmosphere, with wind and sun providing the energy, as well as using rain water, claims it has created the world’s first zero-impact diamond.

Dale Vince, the founder of green energy firm Ecotricity and chairman of Forest Green Rovers football club, developed the Sky Diamond for anyone concerned about the environmental impact of their gems, at the Ecotricity headquarters in Stroud, Gloucestershire.

Creators see the process as a way to challenge traditional diamond mining and the damage it can cause to the planet.

It took the team more than five years to get the technique right, ensuri ng t he gems are physically and chemically identical to traditional diamonds.

The diamonds – certified by the International Gemological Institute – take a couple of weeks to be made.

“The entire ingredient list comes from the sky and it ’s not just low or zero carbon, it’s actually negative carbon in that respect, because we’re locking up atmospheric carbon into a very permanent form of carbon, the diamond,” Mr Vince said.

“We no longer need to dig these enormous holes in the ground – they’re visible from space, some of them.

“We don’t need to do that to get diamonds, we can just make them from the sky in an entirely benign process.

“We see this as 21st century technology, the exact kind of thing we need to be doing to fight the climate and other sustainability crises, but also enable us to carry on living the way that we’re used to living and want to live.”

The environmentally-friendly diamonds will be available to pre-order for collaborations from early next year.