Microsoft Secures Deal To Restore Amazon Rainforest and Offset AI Emissions

Microsoft will pay to restore parts of Brazil's Amazon and Atlantic forests [non-paywalled source] in exchange for hundreds of millions of dollars' worth of carbon credits, becoming the latest Big Tech player to bet that nature-based solutions can offset an artificial intelligence-driven surge in greenhouse gas emissions. Financial Times: The $3.2tn US company told the Financial Times it had signed a deal to buy 3.5mn credits over 25 years from Re.green, a Brazilian start-up which buys up farming and cattle land. It restores the land by planting native tree species, in projects financed through carbon credits and timber sales. Neither company disclosed a value for the deal, but recent market analysis suggests it could be worth around $200mn.

Microsoft's recent dealmaking has made it one of the biggest buyers of nature-based carbon removals globally. The deal comes as groups including Microsoft, Google and Amazon invest heavily in data centres to cope with the huge demand stemming from the growth of generative AI. But the buildout is leading to a surge in their energy usage and complicating their pledges to investors to curb emissions.

A losing move

[Baron_Yam]

Pour more CO2 into the air, then pay to have a few trees planted for PR. It won't work (in terms of net CO2, not PR).

California underbrush

[Okian Warrior]

Pour more CO2 into the air, then pay to have a few trees planted for PR. It won't work (in terms of net CO2, not PR).

Harvest underbrush from California forests, put through a wood chipper, then deposit in layers around the existing rainforest so that the fungal mat can extend into the wood chips.

With some attention to detail, all of this could be done using renewable energy sources. You need a wood chipper that runs on electricity, and a cargo ship sailing vessel.

And no, we can't do all of this using renewables right now, but it's a plan for mitigation and shows us where we need to apply our engineering resources.

Re:

[DrMrLordX]

Never mind that you could be introducing invasive species of fungi or insects or whatever else, but shipping wood chips from Cali to Brasil et al does not seem worth the trouble.

Re: California underbrush

[drinkypoo]

"Harvest underbrush from California forests"

With a rake?

Wow.

[nightflameauto]

It's so altruistic of Microsoft to have found a way to profit via CO2 credits from the recent slash and burn policy of the Brazilian government. Amazing what we're doing to our planet in the name of profit, and that the big businesses of the world manage to keep finding new ways to profit off of humanity's collective stupidity. So altruistic. So giving. So kind.

Re:

[sodul]

I personally consider Carbon Credits as harmful since it allows companies, and countries, to artificially lower their reported carbon footprint by paying for one time activities that do not necessarily cause a net benefit to the overall carbon emissions.

It's kind of like someone on a diet that adds lettuce and tomato to his burger and fries to eat more healthy. An other example would be someone that stops smoking, between two cigarettes.

Re:

[nightflameauto]

I personally consider Carbon Credits as harmful since it allows companies, and countries, to artificially lower their reported carbon footprint by paying for one time activities that do not necessarily cause a net benefit to the overall carbon emissions.

It's kind of like someone on a diet that adds lettuce and tomato to his burger and fries to eat more healthy. An other example would be someone that stops smoking, between two cigarettes.

Yeah, we all know carbon credits are a flat out scam at absolute best. It's a way to avoid doing anything while green-washing. "Look at that forest that no one was threatening to chop down. That's carbon credits for us so we can continue to pour toxic waste into the air. GO US!"

This particular story just added a new level of ick to the general vibe.

Microsoft pays a bit..

[MpVpRb]

..to tell a fictional story that they are helping

Bullshit

[CEC-P]

If you're not familiar with how this scam usually works, they buy carbon credits from a bullshit scam company who does 2 things. They plant non-native trees that soak up EVEN MORE Co2 and they get killed by native bug species or are pushed out by more adaptive native plants. Or the natives come cut them down because they do nothing to protect them afterwards.
OR
They sell carbon-reduction-prevention credits where they find an area the natives are 100% never going to cut down for various reasons and then get them to sign a non-binding piece of paper saying they won't cut them down. Then they pay them like 1% and leave and pocket the rest.

Re-green, a Brazilian start-up

[Tony Isaac]

What could possibly go wrong.

So does anyone fall for this anymore?

[rsilvergun]

I mean this is greenwashing. This is them doing a completely bullshit gesture to try and make us think climate change isn't a problem. Does that still work? I mean I get that it worked for years and years and years but at this point why don't they just tell us to go fuck ourselves? It kind of looks like the corporations won and that they can do pretty much anything they want at this point.

Is there anyone left who doesn't look at this and recognize it's bullshit?

profit or non?

[toxonix]

"Re.green, a Brazilian start-up"
which appears to be a for-profit greenwashing startup that intends to make money on "high quality" carbon credits and ... cutting down trees for lumber. So high quality lumber.
"Wood has a unique harvest cycle and, after cutting, the forest is perpetuated in up to 5 years"
Say what? Are they growing exclusively Balsa? Cecropia grows fast too, but I don't know about 5 years. Rosewood and Mahogany are both endangered and probably really profitable if you are farming them, but the

Explain like I'm five ..

[Mirnotoriety]

How is paying Brazil to not produce carbon and at the same time emitting carbon in the industrial north - going to reduce atmospheric carbon?