JPMorgan to invest over $200 million in emerging carbon removal technologies

As part of its effort to further accelerate its operational sustainability goals, JPMorgan Chase joined a group of tech companies including Autodesk, H&M Group, and Workday in buying $1 billion worth of carbon dioxide removal.

At the time, the five companies announced a combined $100 million commitment to Frontier, a benefit company owned by fintech and payment giant Stripe. The $100 million was in addition to the $925 million from Stripe, Alphabet, McKinsey, Meta, and Shopify at the launch of Frontier a year earlier.

Fast forward a month later, JPMorgan announced Tuesday that it has committed to investing over $200 million in various carbon removal technologies to “remove and store 800,000 metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalent (mtCO₂e) from the atmosphere,” the US largest bank said in a statement. The bank also added that the first $75 million commitment of the $200 million was part of April commitment to Frontier to help accelerate CDR technologies by guaranteeing demand.

“To help speed and scale the growth and development of carbon dioxide removal (CDR) technologies, JPMorgan Chase signed long-term agreements to purchase over $200 million in high quality, durable1 CDR. These agreements, intended to remove and store 800,000 metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalent (mtCO₂e) from the atmosphere.”

The commitment, which represents one of the largest carbon removal purchases announced to date, will support scaling up carbon removal and is expected to enable the Firm to match every ton of its unabated direct operational emissions with durable carbon removal by 2030, JPMorgan said in a news release.

“These agreements reflect our ambition to support scale, innovation and evolution in these technologies. Alongside reducing emissions, the world needs significant investment in durable carbon removal solutions with gigaton-scale potential,” said Ashley Bacon, Chief Risk Officer, JPMorgan Chase.

Carbon capture, utilization and storage (CCUS), also referred to as carbon capture, utilization, and sequestration, is a process that captures carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions from sources like coal-fired power plants and either reuse or stores it so it will not enter the atmosphere. Capturing CO2 broadly involves the direct removal of CO2 from flue gas streams through post-combustion techniques or the adoption of low-carbon-intensive pre-combustion techniques.

“Financing promising technologies needed to help accelerate the low-carbon transition requires capital and expertise. We’re working to drive scalable development of carbon removal and storage as commercial solutions and aim to send a strong market signal,” Daniel Pinto, president and chief operating officer of JPMorgan Chase, said in a written statement.

“Financing promising technologies needed to help accelerate the low-carbon transition requires capital and expertise. We’re working to drive scalable development of carbon removal and storage as commercial solutions and aim to send a strong market signal,” said Daniel Pinto, President and Chief Operating Officer, JPMorgan Chase.

In addition, JPMorgan also announces multiple other carbon capture investments including one of the largest ever purchases of carbon dioxide removal (CDR) services via direct air capture and storage (DAC+S) from Climeworks: The Firm signed a 9-year agreement with Climeworks to deliver 25,000 mtCO₂e of carbon removal services.

“JPMorgan Chase’s long-term agreement with Climeworks sets a compelling example for the immediate action and the portfolio approach that are needed to deploy CO2 removal solutions. The finance industry has no doubt become a trailblazer in supporting the scale up of high-quality carbon removal solutions, today marks a new milestone in this field,” says Christoph Gebald, co-founder and co-CEO of Climeworks.

JPMorgan said that it has purchased a significant purchase of bio-oil CDR from Charm Industrial. The bank added that it has also agreed to purchase Charm CDR removing and storing approximately 28,500 mtCO₂e over 5 years and deliveries have already begun for JPMorgan Chase.

“We’re excited to partner with JPMC to remove thousands of tons of carbon while creating significant economic opportunities in communities with large scale agriculture and oil and gas expertise – right here in the U.S. JPMorgan Chase’s commitment to CDR is an important industry catalyst that will help us grow our carbon removal operations, and we’re proud to be one of their early partners,” said Peter Reinhardt, co-founder and CEO of Charm Industrial.