Microsoft Secures 18M Carbon Credits in Long-Term Deal

Microsoft is taking another big step toward its carbon-negative goal by partnering with Rubicon Carbon in a long-term deal to purchase 18 million carbon removal credits. This marks one of the company’s most significant carbon offset agreements to date and highlights a broader corporate trend toward large-scale, nature-based solutions.

Supported by Rubicon Carbon, the Delta Blue initiative is rehabilitating 225,000 hectares of mangrove forests in the Indus River Delta in Pakistan. AI generated picture.

The multi-year agreement makes Rubicon Carbon—a US-based carbon credit platform—Microsoft’s go-to partner for sourcing credits from afforestation, reforestation, and revegetation (ARR) projects. These credits will be delivered over a 15- to 20-year period through structured offtake contracts, providing long-term support for projects that remove atmospheric carbon and restore ecosystems.

A key aspect of the partnership is the development of a joint evaluation framework that ensures projects meet Microsoft’s high environmental standards. ‘Through this collaboration, Rubicon Carbon has developed an evaluation framework with Microsoft that reflects Microsoft's science and quality criteria while building upon Rubicon Carbon's rigorous standards for carbon removal credit integrity’, Rubicon stated.

In addition to credit sourcing, Rubicon will oversee due diligence and vetting of projects to ensure they meet both environmental impact and investment performance goals. ‘This collaboration serves as a blueprint for how the financial sector can meet the urgency of the moment while also generating strong financial returns’, said Tom Montag, Rubicon Carbon’s CEO.

Microsoft’s Brian Marrs, senior director of energy and carbon removal, emphasized the strategic importance of long-term financing in the carbon space: ‘We believe that project finance needs to be central to the voluntary carbon market, and this deal signals the long-term demand for carbon removal necessary to mobilise infrastructure-grade investment and world-class execution.’

This latest announcement adds to Microsoft’s expanding carbon removal portfolio. In the first quarter of the year alone, the tech giant accounted for 12 of the 17 million tonnes in advanced global CDR credit commitments. Other recent deals include agreements with EFM, Living Carbon, and AtmosClear, bringing Microsoft’s total to more than 27 million credits secured.