Microsoft 12-Year Pact Propels Soil Carbon Market

Indigo Ag’s 2.85M-credit deal marks one of the largest soil carbon removal agreements, boosting standards, scale, and long-term confidence

16 Feb 2026

In carbon markets, size is often mistaken for substance. A new deal between Microsoft and Indigo Ag aims to offer both.

The technology giant has signed a 12-year agreement to purchase 2.85m soil carbon removal credits from Indigo, one of the largest such deals by volume. For a market long dogged by doubts over quality and scale, the contract signals a shift from small trials to longer-term commitments.

Microsoft, which has pledged to become carbon negative by 2030, has grown wary of short-lived offsets. It has instead turned to carbon removals that promise clearer accounting and longer monitoring. Company representatives have consistently underscored rigorous measurement, transparent accounting, and long-term monitoring as prerequisites for participation in carbon markets.

For Indigo, the importance lies less in the headline number than in the duration. Multi-year offtake agreements provide predictable revenue. That, in turn, allows developers to pay farmers to adopt practices such as cover cropping and reduced tillage, and to invest in better data and verification systems. The credits are issued under established registries, including Climate Action Reserve, and are designed to align with the Integrity Council for the Voluntary Carbon Market’s Core Carbon Principles. Such guardrails are meant to bolster trust in a market where confidence has often been thin.

Yet soil carbon remains a tricky asset. The amount stored depends on soil type, weather and farming practice. Gains can be reversed. Permanence, a prized feature of carbon removals, is harder to guarantee in a field than in a rock formation. Monitoring and verification frameworks are improving, but they are still evolving.

Even so, the structure of the Microsoft-Indigo deal suggests a maturing market. Large buyers are becoming more selective, demanding tighter standards and longer contracts. Developers, in turn, gain the financial stability to scale projects beyond a handful of farms.

Whether soil carbon becomes a pillar of climate finance will depend less on lofty pledges than on consistent results. This agreement is a test of whether the voluntary carbon market can deliver both.