This week, JPMorgan Chase announced its agreement to purchase a total of over $200 million worth of carbon removal credits.
The purchase agreement is for a combination of different carbon removal solutions and will offset the bank’s CO2 emissions from its direct operations by 2030.
Thus, the spending will result in the permanent removal of about 800,000 metric tons of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere.
A large portion of the $200 million investment ($75 million) was already announced last month, when JPMorgan joined Frontier, the advance market commitment to purchase at least 1 billion tons of carbon removal by the end of the decade.
In a statement on the recent purchase agreement, president and chief operating officer of JPMorgan Chase Daniel Pinto said: “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.”
However, despite the huge commitment that will essentially support a very critical but still nascent sector, it has come under scrutiny from climate advocates and experts.
Relevant: Frontier Carbon Removal Commitment Surpasses $1B With Four New Members
Critics argue that if carbon removals are to be treated as offsets, it would allow major companies to do nothing with regards to reducing their own emissions, whereas the IPCC has identified the pressing need to do both.
In fact, the latest IPCC report highlights the necessity to advance both carbon capture and carbon dioxide removal (CDR) technologies, if society is to successfully limit global warming to 1.5 degrees by mid-century.
On the other hand, funding is the key to scaling both types of climate technologies and without major purchases like the $200 million investment from JPMorgan, there will be no way to allow these solutions to scale.
Read more: The New IPCC Report Stresses Need For CO2 Capture And CDR
