Microsoft has extended its ten-year deal with Stockholm Exergi from 3.33 million tonnes to 5.08 million tonnes of permanent carbon removals. At 500,000 tonnes annually, the extended contract represents the world’s largest agreement for permanent removals on a yearly basis.

Using bio-energy with carbon capture and storage (BECCS) at Värtan, Stockholm the agreement with Microsoft will deliver carbon removal certificates following strict quality requirements. This includes criteria for sustainable sourcing of forest biomass developed together with Microsoft, conservative quantification of net removals and comprehensive monitoring, reporting and verification (MRV).

In line with the policy of the Swedish government, the carbon removals exchanged in this agreement will be used by Microsoft to negate its own emissions and will be transparently reported as fitting under Sweden’s climate targets, similarly to how corporate emission reductions contribute to national climate targets.

When in operation, Stockholm Exergi’s plant will permanently remove up to 800,000 tonnes of carbon from the atmosphere per year. The project recently took its final investment decision and construction started, with the goal of having the facility operational in 2028.

The agreement underlines recent developments in the voluntary market where nations have started in earnest to embrace the need to deploy permanent removals to reach interim and net-zero targets. This need for removals is currently being translated into action both within voluntary standards as well as in the upcoming EU 2040 climate target.

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