Stripe Climate FAQs

Get answers to common questions about Stripe Climate.

Stripe Climate Basics

How does Stripe Climate spend my contribution?
We allocate contributions towards projects that remove carbon dioxide (CO₂) from the atmosphere, primarily by purchasing the permanent removal of CO₂ at a particular price per ton.
Purchasing carbon removal from frontier technologies is our primary focus, but in some cases, we’ll back other entities that can advance the carbon removal ecosystem. We are open to supporting projects that have a path to—but currently don’t offer—a net-negative carbon removal solution. For example, we may fund academic research directly or components of future carbon removal systems, such as “capture-only” or “storage-only” projects (e.g., CarbonCure).
We select a variety of projects with the help of scientific expert reviewers and use a transparent application process. As is typically the case with a portfolio approach, some projects will deliver results and others may fail. We’re optimistic that the breadth of technologies and organizations we get behind will increase the likelihood that the world has the solutions needed to counteract climate change.
Does Stripe Climate offer traditional carbon offsets?
No. Traditional carbon offsets, while often inexpensive, are unlikely to scale to the size of the climate problem. Instead, we’ve chosen to focus on permanent carbon removal technologies. In the best case, we hope that these projects can grow to provide a material portion of the gigatons of carbon removal the world needs to limit a rise in temperature below agreed-upon targets.
We select carbon removal projects based on criteria we developed in partnership with our scientific expert advisors, and we rely on our public application and review process instead of verifying through traditional carbon offset verifiers.
How can I best track the impact of my contribution?
Stripe Climate sends you a quarterly update detailing your contribution, the projects it was allocated to, and the impact and progress of those projects so far.
Does my contribution make my business carbon neutral?
No. You’ll find the most reliable calculation of your impact in our quarterly update emails. Unlike traditional offsets with established calculation metrics, carbon removal is a new and evolving industry, where prices and removal amounts fluctuate (the price per ton of carbon removal available through Stripe Climate will change significantly as the technologies develop—this is intentional). Given that, we’d recommend not making a specific carbon neutral claim. A better approach would be to highlight the percentage or dollar amount of your contribution toward scaling critical carbon removal technologies.
How do I change or pause my contribution?
You can change or pause your contribution at any time in the Climate settings page of your Dashboard.
Is my contribution tax deductible?
Tax reporting is often dependent on your specific situation, so we encourage you to talk with a tax advisor to ensure appropriate accounting. Your contribution isn’t currently processed through a nonprofit organization, so it doesn’t qualify as a charitable contribution. It may be deductible as a business expense, similar to a typical Stripe Fee.
Where can I find information about my contribution in my Stripe financial reports?
Your Climate contributions are reported as a Contributions line item in the Balance change from activity section of your financial reports in the Dashboard.
How are refunds handled if I select a percentage contribution?
We don’t return contributions when payments are refunded or disputed. If this causes any issues for your business, please contact us.
Can I allow my customers to contribute to carbon removal at checkout?
Currently, only Stripe businesses are able to contribute a fraction of their revenue to carbon removal. In the future, we may introduce this functionality that would allow your customers to contribute as well. If you’d like to try this out early, please contact us.
I’m a Connect platform. How does Stripe Climate work for me?
Enabling Stripe Climate in your Dashboard will enable contributions from your platform itself, it won’t affect your connected accounts. If you take an application fee from your connected accounts, you’ll see this reflected in your percentage-based contributions. For destination charges, we’ll apply the percentage-based contribution to the charge minus the transferred amount. For separate charges and transfers, we’ll apply the percentage-based contribution to the entire charge amount.
I use Standard connected accounts. How can they use Stripe Climate?
Your Standard accounts can log into their Stripe dashboard and independently enable Stripe Climate for their own revenue. If they do so, this won’t affect your platform. If you’d like to make your Standard connected accounts aware of Stripe Climate, you can share this link to the Climate section of their Dashboard—http://dashboard.stripe.com/get-started/climate—with them.
I use Custom or Express connected accounts. How can they use Stripe Climate?
We’ll continue to roll out Stripe Climate for all Stripe users. If you use Custom or Express connected accounts and want to enroll them, send us an email for early access.
How should I describe my commitment to my customers and employees?
You can freely use and reference language from the Stripe Climate page or our blog post discussing our initial carbon removal purchases. If you’d like additional example language, please contact us.
How do I download and use the Stripe Climate badge?
You can find assets and usage guidelines in the Climate settings page of your Dashboard.

Troubleshooting

I don’t see Stripe Climate in my Dashboard, can I still contribute?
Stripe Climate is currently available to U.S. Stripe users with their own account or a Standard Connect account. We’re working to make it available globally as soon as possible. If you’re outside the U.S. and would like to join the waiting list for your country, please contact us.
I only process some of my revenue through Stripe but I want to give X% of my total revenue. How do I do that?
We recommend that you calculate the percentage of revenue that you’d like to allocate and set a custom fixed monthly contribution amount in the Climate settings page of your Dashboard. If you update the amount prior to the first of the next month’s billing cycle, you can adjust it as your revenue grows. We recognize this process is currently not optimal—if you’re trying to use Stripe Climate this way, contact us and we can discuss how we can help.
I’m not a Stripe user, but I want to contribute. What are my options?
Thanks for your interest! Please send us an email.
My “percentage of revenue” suggestions don’t seem to understand my revenue correctly. What do I do?
Stripe Climate suggests “percentage of revenue” options based off of the revenue you process through Stripe. If the listed options are too high or low, you can set a custom percentage contribution—or set a fixed monthly contribution. If you run into this issue, please let us know so that we can improve the suggested contribution calculation for all businesses.
What happens if I set a fixed contribution where the amount is greater than my Stripe balance on the date the contribution is debited?
This scenario will bring your account balance negative, which may result in your bank account being debited so that your Stripe balance is whole again. To avoid this, you can proactively add to your balance ahead of the contribution, which is debited on the first of the month. In these cases, Stripe sends you an email notification reminding you to top-up before a debit takes your balance negative.