Stripe, a provider of online payments technology, is partnering with other companies, including Google parent Alphabet and Facebook parent Meta, to invest nearly $1 billion in the carbon-capture market.
According to a February Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change report, climate change is causing an increase in storms, droughts, and wildfires, as well as a decline in biodiversity.
Temperatures have risen all around the world, with higher northern latitudes experiencing bigger rises. In the last 100 years, average Arctic temperatures have risen at about double the global average rate. According to recent research, rising carbon dioxide levels were the cause of the previous ice ages. The quick spike in levels we've caused since the industrial revolution is identical to the increased temperatures that pulled the earth out from beneath the ice.
The companies announced the formation of Frontier on Tuesday, intending to purchase $925 million in permanent carbon removal from companies developing the technology within the next nine years.
Frontier is an example of an advanced market commitment, which ensures that technology innovators will be able to sell their products once they've been developed. Frontier's members have promised to invest a total of $925 million in technologies to remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, which is the primary cause of global warming, between now and 2030.
Most attempts to mitigate climate change focus on reducing emissions in the first place, such as switching to renewable energy and reducing meat consumption, however, carbon capture may be necessary to offset carbon emissions from industries such as steel and concrete manufacturing. Carbon capture will only be beneficial if it is cost-effective on a massive scale of gigatons per year.
Up to this point, carbon capture technology has removed permanently less than 10,000 tons of CO2 from the atmosphere, falling far short of the billions of tons per year required by the IPCC. Frontier hopes that by pledging to purchase carbon capture technology, its users will be able to encourage entrepreneurs to develop the necessary systems.
"With Frontier, we want to send a clear message to business owners, academics, and investors that there is a market for irreversible carbon removal: build it, and we will buy it," Stripe's head of climate work, Nan Ransohoff said.
Tech behemoths have already taken steps to decrease their carbon impact, such as purchasing renewable energy and undertaking other initiatives. Microsoft asked more companies to enter the carbon capture sector in March.
