Dublin, July 6 2022 - Klarna, a leading global retail bank, payments, and shopping service today announced it will invest EUR 240,000 from its internal tax on carbon1 in Ireland-based company Silicate to accelerate growth in the carbon removal space and help permanently remove CO2 emissions from the atmosphere.
The partnership is part of Klarna’s unique sustainability approach, which focuses on investing funds from its internal carbon tax, which in 2022 amounted to USD 1.7 million, in a number of initiatives that tackle the most pressing challenges around climate change such as permanent carbon removal.
In the carbon removal space, Klarna is investing in a total of four projects2, including Silicate, which will potentially remove by 2030 11,587 metric tonnes of CO2 equivalents,, or the electricity consumption of over 2,000 households in a year.
Salah Said, Head of Sustainability at Klarna said: “We’re proud to partner with Silicate, a pioneer in the carbon removal space, to help permanently remove CO2 emissions from the atmosphere and mitigate the worst consequences of the climate crisis. Our objective is to create as much impact per dollar as possible and to be part of the solution to the climate crisis.”
Silicate is the first company in the world to use waste concrete to remove CO2 emissions. Silicate’s process involves taking returned and unused concrete from the construction sector and processing it into a fine dust. This dust is then applied to agricultural land, in much the same way as agricultural lime. By speeding up a natural geological process, the weathering of silicate minerals, the company is removing excess CO2 from the atmosphere and storing it.
Maurice Bryson, founder of Silicate said: “With the support of Klarna, Silicate will showcase its ability to permanently and safely remove triple-digit tonnes of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. We hope that this partnership will enhance our ability to grow and help demonstrate the potential enhanced weathering has to address climate change.”
This year's selection of carbon removal companies builds on Klarna’s contribution to the Climate Transformation Fund, which is the fund run by Klarna’s strategic partner Milkywire with funds from Klarna’s tax on carbon that focuses on durable carbon removal, reforestation and forest protection, decarbonization, policy change and new technologies.
The CTF focuses on selecting effective and transformative projects across all sustainability areas, addressing the urgent needs for further investments in the climate action space. Klarna aims to continue making meaningful contributions to carbon removal initiatives and to add capacity to the CTF, hoping to inspire other companies to follow.
While sponsoring impactful projects, Klarna also made progress in reducing its own emissions. In 2021 the company cut its own carbon emission intensity, which is Klarna’s total CO2 footprint by revenue generated in a business year, by 10 % and by 2030 the company aims to halve its emissions in line with the Paris agreement Klarna will regularly report greenhouse gas emissions and and by 2040 to operate at net-zero.
Klarna also encourages consumers to participate in the action, offering them the opportunity to donate to Silicate and other projects through a donation integration in its in app CO2 tracker, which allows its 150 million consumers across all markets to track the estimated carbon emissions of their purchases.
Note to editors:
1) Klarna follows the guidelines from the GHG Protocol Corporate Accounting and Reporting Standard, and the Corporate Value Chain (Scope 3) Accounting and Reporting Standard. The internal carbon tax is set at $100/tonne for all scope 1, 2 and travel emissions (remaining scope 3 emissions set at $10/tonne). In 2022, Klarna’s internal tax on carbon amounted to USD 1.67 million. For more information see Climate Report 2021.
2) In 2022, Klarna contributed USD 1.67 million to projects selected for the Climate Transformation Fund, including 715,000 to the WRLD foundation earmarked for projects within reforestation, nature protection and decarbonization, and USD 955,000 to four carbon removal initiatives, specifically USD 100,000 to Heirloom, USD 250,000 to Husk, USD 355,000 to Inter Earth and USD 250,000 to Silicate.
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