Tech giant Google has made a deal with Brazilian startup Mombak, agreeing to purchase 50,000 metric tons of nature-based carbon removal credits by 2030.
This move marks the first instance of Google investing in forestry-based carbon removal credits.
After a 2023 sustainability report showed an alarming 48% increase in emissions when compared to 2019, in 2024 Google shifted their sustainability strategy, moving away from buying carbon capture and storage (CCS) offsets and orienting towards reducing their own emissions and investing in CO2 removal projects.
In March of this year, the corporation announced plans to contract at least $35M worth of carbon removal credits over the next 12 months.
Google is also part of the Symbiosis Coalition, a union they co-founded with Microsoft, Meta, and Salesforce with a shared commitment of buying 20 million tons of nature-based CO2 removal credits by 2030.
Randy Spock, Carbon Removal Lead at Google, stated that they are pleased to partner with Mombak on their first purchase of forestry-based carbon removal credits, with a focus on solving a key challenge in this field, which is ensuring certainty of climate impact.
“Looking ahead, we’re excited to build on this deal via our participation in the Symbiosis Coalition,” he added.
With the ambitious goal of becoming the world’s leading carbon removal company, Mombak specializes in large-scale reforestation and carbon sequestration from the atmosphere, developing native, biodiverse reforestation projects in the Amazon rainforest.
Their high-quality credits are backed by advanced technology and data, ensuring meaningful environmental impact and minimizing the risk of carbon leakage.
Besides this investment from Google, Mombak’s promising approach to carbon removal has also been recognized by Microsoft, which committed to buying up to 1.5 million credits from the startup.
Mombak’s Chief Technology Officer Dan Harburg commented that they are looking forward to working with Google and other leading organizations to further develop the field of nature-based carbon removal while guaranteeing that their projects deliver the highest standards of climate impact, transparency, and community engagement.
