Microsoft will pay to restore parts of Brazil’s Amazon and Atlantic forests in exchange for hundreds of millions of dollars’ worth of carbon credits.
The US company told the Financial Times it has signed a deal to buy 3.5mn credits over 25 years from Re.green, a Brazilian start-up which buys up farming and cattle land. It restores the land by planting native tree species, in projects financed through carbon credits and timber sales.
Neither company disclosed a value for the deal, but recent market analysis suggests it could be worth around $200mn. Microsoft’s recent dealmaking has made it one of the biggest buyers of nature-based carbon removals globally.
Increasingly energy intensive data centres still obtain power from grids where oil, coal and gas are burnt for fuel. This means tech companies seeking to meet their green pledges rely on buying credits that represent a tonne of greenhouse gases removed or reduced.
The carbon credits market globally has been beset by scandals, including about how to verify each tonne of CO₂.