Microsoft is doubling down on its carbon-negative pledge with a fresh, high-stakes deal.
The tech giant has agreed to purchase 3.69 million metric tonnes of carbon removal credits from CO280, a company targeting emissions from pulp and paper mills—a sector usually overlooked despite its heavy carbon output.
The agreement stretches over 12 years and is tied to CO280’s first carbon capture facility, which will begin operations in 2028 along the Gulf Coast. Once up and running, the site will extract CO2 directly from the mill’s recovery boiler—an emissions hotspot—before piping it 40 miles away into a saline aquifer, where it will be permanently stored.
Microsoft’s climate goal is massive. In 2023 alone, the company produced over 17 million metric tonnes of greenhouse gases. Buying renewable energy has helped, but that only goes so far. The reality is that some emissions can’t be cut; they need to be cancelled out. That’s where deals like this come in.
This new partnership focuses on something specific: biogenic carbon. Pulp and paper mills emit about 88 million tonnes of it each year. Most of this comes from burning wood, which locks in CO2 during tree growth and then releases it back into the atmosphere when processed. But instead of letting that carbon escape, CO280’s system captures it mid-process.
As Jonathan Rhone, CEO and co-founder of CO280, puts it: “It just seemed like a no-brainer that everyone had missed.” Rhone used to sell power plants to the pulp and paper industry, so he knows the space inside-out. Now, he’s adding carbon capture units to the same industry—this time as a way to lock emissions underground.
The tech behind this isn’t experimental. CO280 is partnering with SLB Capturi—a joint venture between SLB (formerly Schlumberger) and Aker Carbon Capture—using an amine-based process that’s already common in industrial carbon capture. But the scale and intent of the project set it apart.
This first plant will capture about 40% of the mill’s biogenic emissions, and around 30% of its total CO2 footprint—including emissions from fossil fuels used in the operation. A second phase is already planned to double those figures.
The mills themselves aren’t just passive players in this. Each facility will co-own the carbon capture system and earn a cut from credit sales. CO280 currently prices its credits at roughly $200 per tonne. With U.S. tax incentives under the Inflation Reduction Act, that price can drop substantially for buyers—adding a financial incentive to the environmental one.
CO280 isn’t new to this game. It previously struck deals with Frontier, the climate-focused fund backed by Stripe, Google, Meta, and Shopify. But this Microsoft contract is its biggest bet yet—and one of the largest known CO2 removal agreements in the world.
The trees, Rhone said, “do all the heavy lifting by capturing CO2 from the atmosphere.” Now, with help from Microsoft and a network of overlooked industries, that carbon might finally stay out of the sky.
