Microsoft and carbon markets platform Rubicon Carbon announced today the launch of a new agreement which will see Rubicon facilitate the purchase of 18 million tonnes of high-quality carbon removal credits for Microsoft, marking one of the largest-ever commitments by a single corporate buyer in the voluntary carbon market to date.
According to the companies, transactions sourced through the new agreement will support a pipeline of individual Afforestation, Reforestation, and Revegetation (ARR) projects worldwide, with each carbon removal transaction to be structured as 15-to-20 year offtakes.
Launched in 2022, Rubicon delivers carbon credit solutions to businesses, providing services including proprietary curation and portfolio construction, enhanced monitoring and analytics. The company was launched with backing from global alternative asset firm TPG, with a $300 million capital commitment from its climate-focused investment strategy TPG Climate Rise, and its impact investing strategy, The Rise Fund.
Jim Coulter, Founding Partner of TPG and a Managing Partner of TPG Rise Climate, said:
“We launched Rubicon Carbon three years ago to catalyze high-quality carbon projects at scale. This agreement with Microsoft represents an important milestone on our journey to deliver innovative, market-based solutions.”
Under the new agreement, Rubicon will source, assess, and conduct advanced due diligence on ARR projects worldwide, utilizing an evaluation framework developed with Microsoft reflecting the tech giant’s science and quality criteria, and will also provide continuous quality assurance and monitoring, leveraging remote-sensing technologies. Rubicon added that it will prioritize projects with strong potential for scale but limited access to capital.
Tom Montag, CEO of Rubicon Carbon, said:
“Addressing climate change requires more than good intentions—it requires capital deployment at scale. This collaboration serves as a blueprint for how the financial sector can meet the urgency of the moment while also generating strong financial returns. We aim to crowd in more capital by leveraging market-based mechanisms to scale societal impact at a planetary scale.”
The new agreement will accelerate Microsoft’s already substantial lead as the largest corporate buyer of carbon removal credits globally, with carbon dioxide removals (CDRs) platform CDR.fyi earlier this month estimating Microsoft’s purchases to date at 20.5 million tons, well ahead of the Frontier buyers group in second place at 1.25 million tons. Microsoft’s carbon removal portfolio already includes several large-scale afforestation and reforestation-based agreements, including a 7 million ton agreement with Chestnut Carbon and a 3.5 million ton deal with re.green announced earlier this year.
Brian Marrs, Senior Director, Energy & Carbon Removal at Microsoft, said:
“This agreement demonstrates how science, finance, and business model innovation can work in concert to scale affordable and high-quality climate solutions. 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 mobilize infrastructure-grade investment and world-class execution.”
