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Microsoft is purchasing 650,000 metric tons of carbon removal credits from startup BioCirc, the company said today.\u00a0<\/p>\n
As carbon removal deals go, it\u2019s not a big buy. But this one is notable because last month, two<\/a> reports<\/a> said the tech giant was pausing its carbon removal deals. BioCirc<\/a> confirmed for TechCrunch that the purchase agreement was signed in May, weeks after Microsoft reportedly paused new deals.<\/p>\n For the carbon removal industry \u2014 and the startups that depend on it \u2014 there\u2019s a big difference between a pause and a recalibration. Microsoft is reportedly responsible for more than 90%<\/a> of the carbon removal credit market, meaning its purchasing decisions alone can determine whether young companies in the space survive.<\/p>\n Microsoft repeatedly denied that it had paused its carbon removal purchases. \u201cOur carbon removal program has not ended,\u201d Melanie Nakagawa, chief sustainability officer at Microsoft, told TechCrunch in a statement. \u201cAt times we may adjust the pace or volume of our carbon removal procurement as we continue to refine our approach toward sustainability goals.\u201d<\/p>\n The new deal generates carbon removal credits from five BioCirc biogas projects. The biogas plants take biomass waste \u2014 frequently from agriculture \u2014 and use industrial bioreactors to turn it into methane and carbon dioxide. BioCirc captures the carbon dioxide and stores it in an underground reservoir offshore. The methane is then burned in a power plant.\u00a0<\/p>\n Microsoft\u2019s sustainability goals have been strained by the company\u2019s push into AI. To power its data centers in Texas, Microsoft last month said it was working with Chevron and Engine No. 1<\/a> to build a natural gas power plant in the state that could eventually generate 5 gigawatts of electricity. Emissions from that project alone promise to dwarf the deal with BioCirc.<\/p>\n Internally, Microsoft employees have also been debating whether to abandon the company\u2019s goal<\/a> of matching zero emissions electricity with its energy use on an hourly basis. Today, the company matches on an annual basis. That approach gives the company more flexibility to, say, use more natural gas to power its data centers at night, but it also makes the company\u2019s clean energy claims harder to verify.<\/p>\n If Microsoft continues to pursue fossil fuel power plants, it\u2019ll need to ramp up its carbon removal purchases to meet its 2030 target of becoming a carbon negative company (one that removes more greenhouse gases from the atmosphere than it generates).\u00a0<\/p>\n Last year, Microsoft signed several<\/a> deals<\/a> worth millions of tons of carbon removal credits. The program\u2019s reported pause set off alarm bells<\/a> throughout the carbon removal industry, which is still in its infancy.<\/p>\n The new deal suggests that Microsoft is, in fact, recalibrating its carbon removal program \u2014 not abandoning it. Whether that remains true as AI drives its energy consumption higher is something the industry will be watching.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n When you purchase through links in our articles, we may earn a small commission<\/a>. This doesn\u2019t affect our editorial independence.<\/em><\/p>\n