Payments technology company Stripe is supporting climate action by making its carbon removal purchase tool available to Stripe users worldwide.
The company, which was founded by Patrick and John Collison, launched Stripe Climate to US users in October last year, with the global beta programme going live in January. The product allows companies to easily invest in technologies that support climate action, by diverting a fraction of their revenue towards initiatives that permanently remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere.
Millions of businesses running on Stripe will be able to back projects with a few clicks. All funds contributed through Stripe Climate will go to the development of carbon removal technologies, with Stripe forgoing any fees on the contributions.
“Many of our users have told us they want to take climate action, but don’t because figuring out what to do can be time-intensive and complicated,” the company said in a statement. “Stripe Climate makes it easy for businesses of any size to help tackle climate change by funding frontier carbon removal.”
The projects available on the scheme have been chosen in consultation with an expert group of academics and scientists. Stripe is also backing these companies with its own money, purchasing $1 million (€820,000) worth of carbon removal in May last year.
Projects
The four projects are CarbonCure, which reduces the carbon impact and water footprint of concrete production; Climeworks, which is developing a carbon removal plant in Iceland; Project Vesta, which is boosting investments in research; and Charm Industrial , which has developed a bio-oil sequestration process.
It is expected that more projects will be added as the fund grows. To date, more than 500 contributors have signed up to the fund, including Irish company Coffee Angel.
“No single business can create enough demand to scale carbon removal on its own. But the millions of businesses running on Stripe, collectively, can help grow and sustain this new industry,” said Stripe. “Our goal is to create a large market for carbon removal. If successful, this market will accelerate the availability of low-cost, permanent carbon removal technologies, and increase the likelihood that the world has the portfolio of solutions needed to avoid the most catastrophic effects of climate change.”
