Payments company Stripe and ecommerce group Shopify have committed to sped USD 11 million in the Frontier fund to remove carbon dioxide from the environment. Frontier was set up by global commerce and technology firms Stripe, Shopify, Meta, Alphabet, and McKinsey Sustainability, with the aim of investing USD 925 million on carbon removal credits between 2022 and 2030 to help speed deployment and drive down costs.

Investing in technology that removes carbon dioxide Even with pledges of huge reductions in emissions, many scientists believe extracting carbon dioxide (CO2) by using nature or technology will be essential to meet global goals set under the Paris climate agreement to curb climate change, according to the press release. Stripe’s officials stated that removals don’t have an intrinsic value at the moment, and they want to give those building the technology the confidence there are going to be buyers. In this round, Shopify and Stripe have committed to buy 7,011 tonnes of credits from seven companies for a total of USD 3.

5 million, with prices ranging from USD 227 to USD 1,318 per tonne depending on the project. They have also committed an additional USD 7. 5 million contingent on projects reaching technical milestones.

Due to their early stage and complexity, carbon removal credits are much more expensive than traditional offsets which pay for emissions cuts elsewhere to compensate for emissions companies have not cut themselves. More green initiatives Sweden-based fintech Klarna has partnered with climate tech startup Vaayu to provide granular carbon foot printing for more than 50 million fashion items. This will give customers more accurate insights on their environmental impact than ever before and enable them to make more conscious purchasing decisions.

Using Vaayu’s technology, Klarna’s upgraded CO2e tracker automatically calculates carbon emissions for fashion purchases on a product-level in real-time, as featured in Klarna’s recent ‘Spotlight’ event. The cradle-to-grave life cycle assessment (LCA) approach provides users with an enhanced breakdown of a product’s CO₂ emissions along different stages of its lifecycle, allowing Klarna’s 150 million consumers to develop a deeper understanding and sensitivity for their shopping choices. Spotting fake activists The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) is set to organise ‘Internet sweeps’ to identify companies that make false environmental and sustainability claims, also called greenwashing.

The sweeps are set to start in November 2022 as part of the Australian watchdog’s compliance and enforcement priorities to discourage deceptive advertising and marketing practices that claim environmental-friendly and sustainable practices and policies. According to the ACCC, misleading claims about services and products not only undermine customers’ trust in the market but can also set a dangerous trend, with companies falsely basing their marketing campaigns on environmental issues, without providing any measurable or accountable matrix to sustain their claims. The ACCC will take enforcement actions in cases in which customers are being misled or deceived by green claims, as part of the organisation’s focus on actively monitoring greenwashing and helping businesses comply with Australia’s rules and regulations regarding climate change and environmental issues.

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