Microsoft has signed a contract with Stockholm Exergi covering 3.33 million tonnes of permanent carbon removals from bio-energy with carbon capture and storage (BECCS) at Värtan, Stockholm.

The agreement represents the world’s largest permanent removals deal to date, with deliveries of the carbon removal certificates to Microsoft planned to start in 2028 and continue for a period of ten years.

Since 2020, Microsoft has pursued the goal of being carbon negative by 2030, with a reductions first strategy, complemented by building a portfolio of carbon removal offtake agreements. It has publicly set out its criteria for high-quality removals, pursued financeable offtake agreements, communicated lessons learned, and reported its progress annually.

“Leveraging existing biomass power plants is a crucial first step to building worldwide carbon removal capacity. In this case, we are pleased with the efficiency of recovering heat from carbon capture and adding it into district heating networks. Finally, it is crucial to sustainably source the biomass for BECCS projects and we were impressed with Stockholm Exergi’s commitment in this regard,” said Brian Marrs, senior director, Energy & Carbon Removal.

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.

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