Microsoft will purchase up to 1.5 million carbon removal credits that will go toward restoring deforested land in the Amazon, which is reportedly the tech company's largest deal to date for nature-based carbon credits.
Credits were purchased from Brazilian startup, Mombak Gestora de Recursos (Mombak), which will plant more than 100 species of native trees to revitalize ecosystems and allow for natural carbon removal. Reforestation has been used as a form of carbon sequestration as trees naturally take carbon out of the atmosphere as they grow.
Mombak said that large-scale reforestation projects represent the biggest opportunity for viable carbon removal, and the company is confident that Brazil will become the largest exporter of carbon credits because of the vast amount of deforested land present in the region.
“We have one of the five most valuable companies getting their largest nature-based supply of carbon removal in Brazil,” said Peter Fernandez, CEO of Mombak. “That will be strategic for our business. It will allow us to raise more money for reforestation.”
Through the new agreement, Microsoft will contribute to the larger project of growing over 30 million trees in the Amazon basin, or the equivalent of reforesting an area of land five times the size of Manhattan. The purchase will also help work towards Microsoft's target to be carbon-negative by 2030.
Mombak claims its carbon credits represent a high-quality, legitimate solution that actually works to remove carbon from the atmosphere. Some carbon credits, like avoidance offsets, instead support the avoidance of deforestation, or simply ensure that trees are not cut down.
While removal credits like Mombak's are typically more costly, they may answer to a cited concern over carbon markets -- that purchased credits don’t realistically remove as much carbon as claimed.
A 2021 research report from Nature journal found that many reforestation-based carbon capture projects fall short of their claims because the time needed for trees to reach carbon capture potential may be ignored and emissions caused by new plantings are not accounted for, among other issues. Some companies have also grown skeptical of carbon credit legitimacy as they may face legal implications for using invalid carbon credits to offset their emissions.
Measures have been taken to better track the amount of carbon realistically removed, such as various carbon credit certifications. Mombak also said that Microsoft’s use of cloud technology, machine learning, and drones to find the best sites for reforestation was an appealing factor in the agreement.
