Ripple is committed to a sustainable future and acting on it every day by reducing the company’s carbon footprint and reaching net-zero carbon emissions by 2030 or sooner. Ripple’s finance solutions leverage the XRP Ledger—a fast, low-energy, and carbon-neutral public blockchain. And because innovative technology can play a catalytic role in successfully addressing some of the world’s biggest challenges, such as climate change, Ripple supports companies building the infrastructure to scale equitable climate finance, and invests in innovative carbon removal projects.
Since the $100m commitment announced last May, Ripple has made a significant move towards supporting high-impact carbon removal projects. Most notably, by pre-purchasing carbon credits from BC Biocarbon and CarbonCure in 2022—representing the future removal of close to 120,000 metric tons of CO2. Deploying capital through investments in carbon removal projects provides these promising technology companies an ability to launch additional projects in new regions, accelerating deployment of their methodologies while removing higher quantities of carbon from the atmosphere on a more aggressive timeline. The high-impact carbon credits resulting from these investments are expected to be delivered over the next five to seven years.
“This investment will accelerate CarbonCure’s active scaling and help us achieve our mission to reach 500 million metric tons of annual CO₂ reduction and removal by 2030—equivalent to removing 100 million cars from the road each year,” commented CarbonCure Technologies Founder and CEO Rob Niven.
While the effects of carbon emissions on the environment are well documented, the pace of global reductions is not fast enough to limit the temperature rise to 1.5 degrees celsius, as outlined in the revised Paris Agreement. Without action to both drastically reduce existing emissions and sequester carbon, the world will continue to experience rising sea levels, melting polar ice, more frequent and severe weather events, and countless instances of climate migration. In addition to drastic emission-reduction efforts, existing carbon sinks need to be protected and billions of tons of carbon dioxide need to be removed from the atmosphere.
Carbon removal is emerging as a vital tool in the multi-front battle against climate change. Scientists, engineers and entrepreneurs are working relentlessly to develop and deploy technologies that can meaningfully reduce greenhouse gasses. However, the ability for such projects to quickly receive the necessary capital to scale production and lower costs is prevented by burdensome administrative processes and verification delays. Pre-purchase agreements represent an effective way to support the growth and development of breakthrough scalable technologies and carbon removal companies.
BCB’s biochar and CarbonCure’s injection into concrete applications have both emerged as powerful new methodologies for scalable carbon removal with high permanence. These approaches also create value added benefits, such as biodiversity and greener, more durable construction materials.
For instance, when biochar is added to soil, it not only helps to improve soil fertility—allowing crops and biodiversity to flourish—but can sequester thousands of tons of CO2 each year. Reskilling labor plays a role here, as biorefineries leverage similar processes and employee skill sets to those of fossil fuel production, making it an economically promising alternative energy solution that is well within reach.
“Biochar is one of the most innovative and promising carbon removal methodologies we have to mitigate climate change because it not only removes and sequesters large amounts of CO2, but also delivers a powerful array of ecological benefits,” says Ken Weber, VP of Social Impact and Sustainability at Ripple.
The industrial sector is also seeing a green makeover with innovative options to produce cement and concrete—significant contributors to greenhouse gas emissions that release 8% of global CO₂ emissions annually. Concrete has massive potential to lock away carbon, and CarbonCure is one of the leaders of development in this space.
With hundreds of systems operating around the world, CarbonCure injects captured CO₂ into fresh concrete, where it is immediately mineralized and permanently locked away, reducing the amount of cement needed in each mix and lowering the concrete’s carbon footprint.
Coming Together to Combat Climate Change
By capturing and storing carbon dioxide, these technologies can help to reduce the amount of carbon in the atmosphere and mitigate the effects of rising temperatures and severe weather events. As the world continues to grapple with the effects of climate change, it is important to support the development of these and other promising technologies that can help to reduce the overall carbon footprint and protect the planet for future generations.
Learn more about Ripple’s impact strategy.
