Microsoft inks massive carbon removal deal powered by a paper mill

Microsoft announced on Friday that it is buying 3.7 million metric tons of carbon removal credits from CO280, a project developer that works with pulp and paper mills. The purchase covers 12 years of emissions from CO280’s first carbon capture project at a mill on the Gulf Coast. CO280 expects the facility to start capturing CO 2 in 2028. Microsoft’s purchase should help it meet its goal of becoming a carbon-negative company by 2030 — that is, removing more carbon than its business produces. But even with Microsoft’s enviable balance sheet, it’s a tall order: the company generated 17.1 million metric tons of greenhouse gases in 2023. To trim that number, Microsoft has been buying large amounts of renewable power and, to tackle what it can’t replace with renewables, it has been inking deals that remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, helping to offset what it can’t eliminate. The Microsoft project is the first of a dozen that CO280 has in the works, co-founder and CEO Jonathan R ... Read full article.