Google agrees biggest carbon-removal deal yet, aims to scale new model
Spanning more than 200,000 hectares in the southern state of Rio Grande do Sul, it is the largest enhanced rock-weathering project to date, aiming to accelerate a natural process where certain rocks absorb CO2 from the atmosphere.
Google has signed the largest carbon-removal agreement to date, partnering with Brazil-based Terradot to combat methane emissions from rice farming and capture atmospheric carbon dioxide. Stretching across 200,000 hectares in Rio Grande do Sul, this enhanced rock-weathering project is the most ambitious of its kind, aiming to expedite the natural process where specific rocks absorb CO2.
Randy Spock, Google's head of carbon removal, explained that this project is the first of its scale to simultaneously tackle methane abatement and carbon removal. While methane, a potent greenhouse gas, contributes to global warming much faster than CO2, carbon dioxide removal remains crucial for addressing long-standing emissions. Combining both approaches is essential, as resources cannot be solely dedicated to one or the other.
By 2030, the project will generate 1 million metric tons of methane-abatement credits, with 1 million tons of carbon-removal credits expected by 2040. These credits will be separately verified. The carbon-removal component is ten times larger than any previous rock-weathering project.
Rice paddies contribute to 10% to 12% of global methane emissions, according to a 2021 U.N. Environment Programme assessment. Accelerating action on methane is expected to be a focal point at the upcoming COP31 climate talks in Turkey. Lower costs are driving Big Tech companies, including Google, to increase investments in clean energy and carbon-removal initiatives to offset emissions from AI-driven data centers.
This agreement, which Google holds an equity stake in, could potentially be scaled across Brazil's 1.5 million hectares of rice fields and replicated in other rice-growing regions like India and Vietnam. The cost of carbon removal credits in this deal remains undisclosed, but a 2024 90,000-ton deal reportedly indicated a price of around $300 per ton, which is higher than the $100 per ton target many developers aim for to spur broader demand. Google and Terradot did not disclose the price of the credits for this new deal.
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