🔎 What’s going on?
Stripe stuck to its negative emissions commitment it made last year and just made it’s first carbon-negative purchases.
🌱 What does this even mean?
Let’s start with what their negative emissions commitment means. Negative emissions simply mean that carbon emissions are removed from the atmosphere and stored long term. Stripe, a payment technology company last year became carbon neutral but it quickly realised that that wasn’t going to be enough. So they went a step further and made a pledge to create a carbon removal market within Stripe (i.e. putting an internal price on carbon) - they’ve committed to paying at least $1million per year for the direct removal of carbon. Last week, they made good on their promise and announced four projects they have bought - which removes carbon.
They selected these four projects out of 24 promising projects: Climeworks (they directly capture carbon and store it in underground rock formations), Project Vesta (they capture carbon through a mineral called Olivine), CarbonCure (carbon is stored in concrete) and Charm Industrial (carbon is stored in bio-oil which is created by biomass). The projects are a combination of technologies that can remove carbon and/or store carbon.
❓ Why should I care?
Despite the Paris Agreement, an emissions gap exists. In order to limit the rise of temperatures to 1.5C (as agreed by the Paris Agreement), we need to quickly reduce emissions to 25 Gt CO2e by 2030. However, currently, we are on track to reach 56 Gt CO2e by 2030, based on existing commitments by countries. More than double where we need to be! This difference is what’s called the ‘emissions gap’.
🚦 Where do we need to be?
In order to close the emissions gap, the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) recommends that every year we cut 7.6% emissions. But this requires that we reduce and remove emissions. This means that more companies should emulate Stripe’s carbon leadership by going beyond carbon neutral and invest in companies that can remove carbon emissions from the atmosphere.
👤 What can I do about it?
If you are a working professional, then educate your self on carbon removal technologies and encourage your workplace to go beyond carbon neutral. Check out Nori which is a carbon removal marketplace working with businesses to help them remove carbon.