Microsoft announced today that it has signed a carbon removal deal with Inherit Carbon Solutions, a startup that captures and permanently stores CO2 released from production of renewable natural gas (RNG).

RNG, or biomethane, is produced from organic waste, such as agricultural, industrial, and household wastes, and is chemically identical to fossil-based natural gas, enabling it to support the decarbonization of hard-to-abate sectors such as road transport and heavy industry, without needing to replace existing transmission and distribution infrastructure.

Founded in Oslo, Norway, in 2021, Inherit Carbon Solutions captures the CO2 from the conversion of organic waste into renewable energy. This CO2, unlike with other carbon capture solutions, doesn’t have to be separated from other materials. It is created during the production of RNG, which does not contribute to climate change and is used as a fuel in the Nordics and elsewhere. After capturing carbon from biogas plants, Inherit liquifies the CO2 and transports it for permanent geological storage.

Mike Carpenter, Inherit’s CEO and Co-founder said:

“This agreement validates the importance of our permanent carbon removal solution and highlights the collective responsibility we share in addressing the urgent challenges of climate change.”

The agreement marks a further expansion of Microsoft’s portfolio of carbon removal deals, forming part of the company’s initiative to become carbon negative by 2030, and to remove all of its historical emissions by 2050. The company announced one of the largest ever nature-based carbon removal deals last week supporting reforestation in Brazil with Mombak, and signed one of the largest-ever Direct Air Capture (DAC) carbon removal agreements in September with DAC technology company Heirloom, and has also recently announced DAC-based agreements with climate tech company CarbonCapture and with startup Climeworks, an agreement for ocean-based carbon dioxide removal with ocean health company Running Tide, an agreement for the purchase of 2.76 million tonnes of carbon removal with Danish energy provider Ørsted to capture and store biogenic carbon from a wood chip-fired power station in Denmark, and a recent agreement with carbon credit streaming company Carbon Streaming for up to 10,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide removal credits per year from its U.S.-based biochar project.

Earlier this month at the COP28 climate conference in Dubai, Microsoft announced that it has already met a commitment, announced as part of its First Movers Coalition entry in 2022, to contract for at least $200 million of durable and scalable net carbon dioxide removal (CDR) to be achieved by the end of 2030.

Brian Marrs, Senior Director, Energy & Carbon Removal at Microsoft, said:

“We are excited to work with Inherit towards our sustainability goals and make impactful contributions to global climate efforts.”