Microsoft has agreed with Indigo Carbon to buy a record 2.85 million soil carbon credits linked to regenerative agriculture in the US.

The move comes as Microsoft aims to become carbon neutral by 2030, despite surging emissions linked to AI/data centres.

Charlie Sichel of Forestry-Linked Securities, a global developer of investment-grade forestry and carbon sequestration projects, said, “Deals of this size show that carbon removals are moving from pilot purchases to industrial-scale procurement. With that comes a much higher bar on evidence. The market is shifting from headline volumes to hard questions on measurement and long-term durability. Soil carbon can deliver real climate and resilience benefits, but it is also one of the more complex categories to quantify and maintain over time.

The wider takeaway for corporates is that no single credit type is a silver bullet. That same lens applies to nature-based claims more broadly, including forestry. Biological storage is valuable, but it is not automatically ‘permanent’; it needs strong governance, traceability, and risk management, and in some cases a focus on pathways that lock carbon into more durable forms rather than relying solely on standing biomass.”

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