Stockholm (NordSIP) – US bank JPMorganChase announced the signature of a 10-year carbon capture deal on 24 June 2025. The transaction involves the purchase of 50,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide removal (CDR) credits from 1PointFive, a carbon capture, use, and sequestration (CCUS) company based in Texas that specialises in Direct Air Capture (DAC). 1PointFive is currently building Stratos, a DAC plant that stands to be the largest such facility in the world with the potential to remove up to 500,000 tonnes of atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO2) each year.
While many CCUS projects involve the capture of CO2 emissions directly from industrial facilities or power plants, DAC is based on the removal of CO2 from the atmosphere. This means that facilities can be located anywhere. DAC plants use fans to draw in air, which is then passed through various chemicals that trap the CO2, which is then heated to release it from the chemical solvent for further storage or use.
Carbon removal is considered an essential part of the technological mix needed to meet global climate goals such as the International Energy Agency’s (IEA) net-zero emissions 2050 scenario (NZE 2050). Nevertheless, the IEA considers it solely as a solution for any remaining CO2 emissions once all other reduction efforts have been expended. The Science Based Targets initiative (SBTi) guidelines allow for carbon removal of the 5-10% of emissions that cannot be directly mitigated. According to the IEA, the 27 DAC plants that have been commissioned so far can only capture a combined 10,000 tonnes of CO2. The IEA NZE 2050 scenario calls for 65 million tonnes of CO2 removal from DAC by 2030, which indicates the level of investment and development still required for the technology to be proven effective at scale.
DAC overshadowed by JPMorganChase’s vast financed emissions
CCUS technology is especially popular with the fossil fuel industry, which has been accused of promoting the technology as a means of mitigating continued oil and gas consumption. Moreover, captured CO2 can be used to extract more oil from previously unviable wells in a technique known as Enhanced Oil Recovery (EAR). 1PointFive is a subsidiary of the Houston, Texas headquartered Occidental Petroleum Corporation (Oxy), which is involved in oil exploration in the United States and the Middle East as well as petrochemical manufacturing in the United States, Canada, and Chile.
While investment into DAC is needed for the technology to become an effective component in the transition toolkit, JPMorganChase’s wider role in the climate crisis was highlighted in a recent update to the Banking on Climate Chaos (BOCC) database that revealed the US bank as the world’s biggest financier of fossil fuel expansion. JPMorganChase has put roughly $200 billion towards new oil and gas projects since 2021 and has indicated that this DAC deal is aimed at mitigating its operational emissions rather than financed emissions.
Commenting on the deal with 1PointFive Taylor Wright, JPMorganChase Head of Operational Decarbonisation said: “With STRATOS set to be commercially operational this year, JPMorganChase is proud to support large scale deployment of DAC technology. This offtake agreement builds on our diverse, high-quality portfolio of carbon removal projects to address our unabated operational emissions and aligns with our ongoing efforts to help scale the growth and development of carbon removal technologies.”
