We direct 100% of your contribution to carbon removal. Carbon removal projects are sourced and vetted by Frontier, Stripe's in-house team of science and commercial experts.
Stripe’s climate initiative is a gift because it removes all barriers to positive action. This programme makes it easy, and valuable, to do the right thing. We’re proud to be part of it.
We need to solve climate change, but individual actions can only get us so far. Because we’re a small team we’re very focused on our core product, so it was an easy decision to join the growing group of companies using Stripe Climate.
Stripe Climate is Stripe at its best: taking something hugely complicated, doing all the work to boil it down to something understandable, and making it as easy as possible for us to be a part of it.
A lightbulb went on for us after we read about Stripe’s initial carbon removal commitment. Being a team of meteorologists, we’re especially concerned about climate change, so signing up to support next-generation climate technologies was a no-brainer.
To prevent the most catastrophic effects of climate change, we should aim to limit global average temperature increase to 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels, which corresponds to reducing global annual CO₂ emissions from about 40 gigatons per year as of 2018, to net zero by 2050.
To accomplish this, the world will likely need to both radically reduce the new emissions we put into the air, and remove carbon already in the atmosphere.
Existing carbon removal solutions such as reforestation and soil carbon sequestration are important, but they alone are unlikely to scale to the size of the problem. New carbon removal technologies need to be developed – ones that have the potential to be high volume and low cost by 2050 – even if they aren’t yet mature.
Today, carbon removal solutions face a chicken-and-egg problem. As early technologies, they’re more expensive, so don’t attract a critical mass of customers. But without wider adoption, they can’t scale production to become cheaper.
Early purchasers can help new carbon removal technologies get down the cost curve and up the volume curve. Experience with manufacturing learning and experience curves has shown repeatedly that deployment and scale beget improvement, a phenomenon seen across DNA sequencing, hard drive capacity, and solar panels.
This thinking shaped Stripe’s initial purchases and ultimately led us to launch Frontier, an advanced market commitment (AMC) to buy carbon removal. The goal is to send a strong demand signal to researchers, entrepreneurs, and investors that there is a growing market for these technologies. We’re optimistic that we can shift the trajectory of the industry and increase the likelihood the world has the portfolio of solutions needed to avoid the worst effects of climate change.
Stripe Climate works with Frontier, Stripe's in-house team of science and commercial experts committed to carbon removal technologies, to make carbon removal purchases. Frontier is advised by a multidisciplinary group of top scientific experts to help us evaluate the most promising carbon removal technologies. Explore the growing portfolio of projects, read the criteria we use to select them, or view our open sourced project applications.
AspiraDAC is building a modular, solar-powered direct air capture system with the energy supply integrated into the modules. Their metal-organic framework sorbent has low temperature heat requirements and a path to cheap material costs, and their modular approach allows them to experiment with a more distributed scale-up.
Direct air captureMineral weathering already naturally captures CO₂ at gigaton scale. Lithos accelerates this by spreading basalt on croplands to increase dissolved inorganic carbon in the soil. Their technology uses novel soil models and machine learning to maximise CO₂ removal while boosting crop growth. The team is scaling their empirical verification, river network, and plant-tissue studies to advance measurement of CO₂ drawdown and ecosystem impact.
Enhanced weatheringTravertine is re-engineering chemical production for carbon removal. Using electrochemistry, Travertine produces sulphuric acid to accelerate the weathering of ultramafic mine tailings, releasing reactive elements that convert carbon dioxide from the air into carbonate minerals that are stable on geologic timescales. Their process turns mining waste into a source of carbon removal as well as raw materials for other clean transition technologies such as batteries.
Enhanced weatheringRepAir uses clean electricity to capture CO₂ from the air using a novel electrochemical cell and partners with Carbfix to inject and mineralize the CO₂ underground. The demonstrated energy efficiency of RepAir’s capture step is already notable and continues to advance. This approach has the potential to deliver low-cost carbon removal that minimises added strain to the electric grid.
Direct air captureThis project, a collaboration between 8 Rivers' Calcite and Origen, accelerates the natural process of carbon mineralisation by contacting highly reactive slaked lime with ambient air to capture CO₂. The resulting carbonate minerals are calcined to create a concentrated CO₂ stream for geologic storage, and then looped continuously. The inexpensive materials and fast cycle time make this a promising approach to affordable capture at scale.
Direct air captureLiving Carbon wants to engineer algae to rapidly produce sporopollenin, a highly durable biopolymer which can then be dried, harvested and stored. Initial research aims to better understand the field's thinking on the durability of sporopollenin as well as the optimal algae strain to quickly produce it. Applying synthetic biology tools to engineer natural systems for improved and durable carbon capture has the potential to be a low-cost and scalable removal pathway.
Synthetic biology44.01 turns CO₂ into rock, harnessing the natural power of mineralization. Their technology injects CO₂ into peridotite, an abundantly available rock, where it is stored permanently. This storage approach can be paired with a variety of capture technologies.
StorageEbb Carbon mitigates ocean acidification while capturing CO₂. Using membranes and electrochemistry, Ebb removes acid from the ocean and enhances its natural ability to draw down CO₂ from the air for storage as oceanic bicarbonate.
Capture StorageEion accelerates mineral weathering by mixing silicate rocks into soil. Their pelletized product is applied by farmers and ranchers to increase carbon in the soil, which over time makes its way into the ocean where it’s permanently stored as bicarbonate. Alongside their technology development, Eion is also conducting a novel soil study to improve the field's measurement of CO₂ uptake.
Capture StorageSustaera uses ceramic monolith air contactors to capture CO₂ directly from the air for permanent storage underground. Their direct air capture system, powered by carbon-free electricity and built with modular components, is designed for quick manufacturing and capture at scale.
Capture StorageSeachange leverages the power and scale of the world’s oceans to remove carbon. Its experimental electrochemical process sequesters CO₂ in seawater as carbonates, an inert material comparable to seashells, thereby enabling energy-efficient and permanent CO₂ removal.
Capture StorageRunning Tide amplifies natural processes to remove carbon in the open ocean. Their buoys are made from carbon-rich forestry byproducts, coated with carbonate material, and seeded with macroalgae. The floating buoys increase ocean alkalinity and grow macroalgae before sinking biomass to the deep ocean. Their scalable approach is powered by photosynthesis, ocean currents, and gravity.
Capture StorageOver geological timescales, CO₂ chemically binds to minerals and permanently turns to stone. Heirloom is building a direct air capture solution that enhances this process to absorb CO₂ from the ambient air in days rather than years, and then extracts the CO₂ to be stored permanently underground.
Capture StorageMission Zero electrochemically removes CO₂ from the air and concentrates it for a variety of sequestration pathways. Its experimental room-temperature process can be powered with clean electricity and has the potential to achieve low costs and high volumes using modular, off-the-shelf equipment.
Capture StorageCarbonBuilt’s process readily converts dilute CO₂ into calcium carbonate, creating a “no compromise” low-carbon alternative to traditional concrete. As a profitable and scalable solution for permanent CO₂ storage, CarbonBuilt’s technology platform can serve as a critical component of future carbon removal systems using direct air capture.
StorageFuture Forest is conducting a field trial to accelerate mineral weathering by crushing basalt rocks into dust, spreading them onto the forest floor, and then measuring CO₂ uptake. This first-of-a-kind trial will help assess the potential for scale as well as the potential ecosystem impacts associated with enhanced weathering.
Capture StorageClimeworks uses renewable geothermal energy and waste heat to capture CO₂ directly from the air, concentrate it, and permanently sequester it underground in basaltic rock formations with Carbfix. While it’s early in scaling, it’s permanent, easy to measure, and the capacity of this approach is theoretically almost limitless.
Capture StorageCarbonCure injects CO₂ into fresh concrete, where it mineralises and is permanently stored while improving the concrete’s compressive strength. Today they source waste CO₂, but represent a promising platform technology for permanent CO₂ storage, a key component of future carbon removal systems.
StorageProject Vesta captures CO₂ by using an abundant, naturally occurring mineral called olivine. Ocean waves grind down the olivine, increasing its surface area. As the olivine breaks down, it captures atmospheric CO₂ from within the ocean and stabilises it as limestone on the sea floor.
Capture StorageCharm Industrial has created a novel process for preparing and injecting bio-oil into geologic storage. Bio-oil is produced from biomass and maintains much of the carbon that was captured naturally by the plants. By injecting it into secure geologic storage, they’re making the carbon storage permanent.
Capture Storage