Microsoft revealed the results of its carbon credit purchase activity in 2025, revealing that the tech giant signed agreements to remove a record 45 million metric tonnes of carbon dioxide last year, doubling the volume contracted by the company in 2024.
Microsoft announced that it has significantly scaled its carbon credit purchase activity over the past year, with the tech giant reporting that it signed agreements to remove a record 45 million metric tonnes of carbon dioxide in 2024, doubling the volume contracted by the company in the prior year, and increasing by nine times compared with 2023.
In a post discussing the results, Microsoft said that it signed carbon removal deals with 21 companies in 2025, with projects spanning a broad range of geographies, and of both nature-based and engineered solutions, with the agreements contributing the equivalent to removing nearly 10 million internal combustion cars from the road for a year.
Microsoft’s carbon removal program forms part of the company’s climate commitments to become carbon negative by 2030, removing more carbon than it emits, and to remove the amount of carbon it has historically emitted by 2050. While the company said that it takes a “reduction-first” approach to reaching its goals, it utilizes carbon removal to address residual and historical emissions that cannot be mitigated through reduction.
While noting “rapid advancement” in the carbon removal market, however, Microsoft noted the “long road ahead to get to the seven to nine billion tonnes of carbon dioxide removal that experts say the world needs annually by 2050,” and highlighted the company’s efforts to help scale the market.
Among its initiatives, Microsoft said that it has worked directly with carbon removal suppliers in the early stages of their projects, before they are listed on carbon credit registries, and signs contracts after conducting its own extensive due diligence with carbon removal project developers to invest and help with development.
Phil Goodman, Director of the carbon removal portfolio at Microsoft, said:
“With any form of carbon removal, you need someone out there to buy the credits so that the economic model works. By securing that forward demand commitment, suppliers can actually go raise financing, hire staff and build out their projects. We buy only a fraction of a project’s total credits, and we hope other companies can make faster procurement decisions knowing that projects in our portfolio underwent deep due diligence.”
The company also highlighted its due diligence approach for projects to meet Microsoft’s published Criteria for High-Quality Carbon Dioxide Removal, with potential suppliers required to submit comprehensive documentation, including strategies for design and implementation, methodologies, and validation processes.
Microsoft added that it takes a “portfolio approach” in its carbon removal activities, with agreements spanning nature-based and engineered solutions, which it said “is needed to catalyze market development.”
In a post announcing the results, Microsoft Chief Sustainability Officer Melanie Nakagawa said:
“Scaling high‑quality carbon dioxide removal is key to building confidence in our strategy, but it isn’t just about Microsoft meeting our own sustainability goals. It’s also about helping to build a market that others trust and join. By supporting a diverse range of high-quality carbon removal approaches, we’re helping lay the groundwork for a market that can grow far beyond any one company and contribute meaningfully to global progress toward net zero and climate resilience.”
