JPMorgan and H&M join Stripe's carbon removal effort

The initiative is trying to foster a marketplace for carbon removal by helping promising climate start-ups to get initial funding.

Frontier, a subsidiary of payments company Stripe headed by brothers John and Patrick Collison, said it had secured $100m (€91.18m) in new carbon-removal purchase commitments from the biggest US bank as well as Workday, Hennes & Mauritz and Autodesk.

US banking giant JPMorgan Chase is among companies joining Stripe's carbon removal initiative funded by some of the biggest tech companies on the planet, in a sign the drive to net-zero emissions can overcome a worsening economic outlook.

Frontier, a subsidiary of payments company Stripe headed by brothers John and Patrick Collison, said it had secured $100m (€91.18m) in new carbon-removal purchase commitments from the biggest US bank as well as Workday, Hennes & Mauritz and Autodesk.

The pledge means Frontier has now attracted more than $1bn (€0.91bn) in commitments after debuting a year ago with $925m (€843m) from technology giants including Meta and Alphabet as well as consulting firm McKinsey. It’s trying to foster a marketplace for carbon removal by helping promising climate start-ups to get initial funding.

The world’s slow progress in cutting greenhouse gas emissions has raised the importance of developing ways to remove carbon from the atmosphere, but the threat of recession and rising prices might lead some companies to think twice before spending money on sustainability efforts. 

For example, Autodesk recently laid off some of its workers. With these new pledges, Frontier is hoping to show that a broader range of companies — including in financial services and retail — are willing to make serious efforts to include carbon removal in their climate plans, alongside offsets and emissions reductions.

The new buyers show “growing momentum in the carbon removal market despite more challenging economic times” and a promising willingness to plan for the longer term, said Hannah Bebbington, a strategy lead at Frontier. “But in the scheme of where we need to get to, we’re still in our earlier innings.” 

The four companies have agreed to purchase a certain amount of carbon removal by 2030 from start-ups selected by Frontier. The start-ups, in turn, are able to work on advancing their technology, which ranges from burying carbon deep underground to removing it from the ocean, while knowing they have buyers lined up for their product once it’s ready.

Bloomberg