Our planet is nearing a tipping point in terms of ecological balance. While countries are actively taking steps to cut down on their production of greenhouse gases, the option to help reverse climate change needs to be incorporated in every step of the way. The global payments provider Stripe has introduced a new service called Stripe Climate so that businesses have an easy option to contribute to counteracting climate change.
Contribute to removing CO2 directly from the air
Stripe Climate is the world’s first service that enables online businesses to donate funds for removing CO2 directly from the atmosphere. With this service, Stripe users can direct a fraction of their revenue toward initiatives that permanently remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere.
Stripe won’t charge any fees for Stripe Climate contributions and will use 100% of the contributed funds to accelerate the development of carbon removal technologies. The projects supported by Stripe Climate are the same four companies Stripe purchased €860,000 worth of carbon removal from, in May 2020 – Climeworks, Project Vesta, CarbonCure, and Charm Industrial.
“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,” says Nan Ransohoff, Head of Climate at 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.
Four companies which will counteract climate change via Stripe Climate
When a business contributes funds to Stripe Climate, the money is used to accelerate the development of carbon removal technologies. Climeworks is one of the four companies that’s supported by the endeavour. The Switzerland-based company is developing a new and larger carbon removal plant in Iceland.
Project Vesta is another company, which is a non-profit that uses the natural process of weathering volcanic rocks to trap CO2. CarbonCure injects carbon dioxide into concrete, which not only stores the greenhouse gas but also strengthens it. Charm Industrial is the fourth company, which converts waste biomass into fast pyrolysis bio-oil, which is injected deep underground as negative emissions or reformed to produce green hydrogen as a fuel and industrial chemical.
Since August 2019, over 25 beta users of Stripe Climate service apparently committed “hundreds of thousands of dollars” to carbon removal technologies. This service and the move by Stripe is expected to help raise the investment in carbon removal technologies. According to PwC, carbon removal startups have received less than one percent of VC green technology funds from 2013-2019.
Stripe Climate is currently available for US-based users and is expected to roll out in more regions soon.
Image Credits: Billion Photos/Shutterstock
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