Stripe Climate FAQs
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 is my contribution calculated?
For percentage-based Climate programs, your contribution for a given payment is calculated as the payment amount times the percentage. So for a 1% program, a $100 charge would result in a $1 Climate contribution in addition to your standard Stripe fees. All Climate contributions are aggregated daily and deducted from your balance in a lump sum.
When are climate contributions withdrawn from my account?
Climate contributions will be withdrawn from your account 1-3 days days after a transaction is processed.
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?
You may be able to deduct it as a business expense in the same manner as a typical Stripe fee. Your contribution isn’t currently processed through a nonprofit organization. Speak to a tax advisor about your specific situation.
Will I receive a VAT or GST receipt for my contribution?
No. Stripe doesn’t charge VAT or GST on Climate contributions, so you won’t receive an official receipt for reimbursement.
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.
How does Stripe Climate handle multiple balance currencies?
If you’ve set a percentage contribution, the percentage is assessed against all charges, in the settlement currency of each charge. If you’ve set a fixed monthly contribution, it’s debited from your balance in your default currency.
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.
As a Connect user, how is my contribution calculated?
Percentage-based Climate contributions are calculated similarly for Connect and non-Connect users. However, in order to more accurately approximate revenue for Connect platforms, there are a few additional considerations:
- If you use direct charges, since the charge doesn’t appear on your account, we’ll instead take a percentage of your application fees. So for a 1% program, a $100 charge with a $1 application fee would result in a $0.01 Climate contribution.
- If you use destination charges, we’ll subtract the amount transferred to the connected account before applying the percentage. So for a 1% program, a $100 charge with a $90 transfer would result in a $0.10 Climate contribution.
- If you use separate charges and transfers, Stripe Climate is unable to reliably tie the transfers back to originating charges, so we take a percentage of the charge amount, just like with non-Connect payments. Note that this is not always a good approximation of your platform revenue. Please contact us if you have questions.
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.
I use Stripe through a third party app. How can I enroll in Stripe Climate?
If you have access to the Stripe Dashboard, you can enable Stripe Climate from your settings page here: https://dashboard.stripe.com/get-started/climate
Your third-party products won’t be automatically updated with the Climate badge, but you can download our badge asset kit to update your own site as you see fit! The badge asset kit will be available for download from your Climate settings page after you finish enrolling.
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 Stripe users with their own account or a Standard Connect account. It’s generally available to Stripe users in the U.S., and available in beta to Stripe users globally. If you’re unable to access Stripe Climate, please contact us.
Why is my balance negative after a Climate contribution?
Due to how Stripe assesses fees for most of our products, it’s possible for balances to go slightly negative. The next time a charge is run, the balance will settle up. Until then, it should not cause issues to maintain a slightly negative balance.
Why isn’t my Climate badge appearing?
The Climate badge is only available on Stripe Checkout, Invoices, or Receipts. If you use a different product, you can download our badge asset kit to add the Climate logo to your site. The badge asset kit is available for download from your Climate settings page.
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.