Google, Meta, Microsoft & Salesforce’s Carbon Coalition

Industry giants Google, Meta, Microsoft and Salesforce are combining to co-found Symbiosis Coalition, a high-powered group of corporate buyers aiming to speed up high-quality nature-based carbon removals.

Mike Werner, Head of Sustainability Programmes & Innovation, Global Sustainability, Google, said: “Protecting and restoring nature is essential to combat climate change and reach a resilient, prosperous future.

“Nature-based carbon removal projects are a scalable way to remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, but nature is complex and dynamic, and it’s full of interdependent ecological and economic systems.

“That’s why it’s so important to follow the latest science to ensure that these solutions have the highest certainty of positive impacts on both nature and the climate.”

What will Symbiosis achieve?

Google’s Carbon Credits and Removals Lead Randy Spock said it is about taking coordinated action to make a difference.

He said Symbiosis will:

• “Set a new benchmark for best-in-class nature-based carbon removal projects, backed by the latest scientific expertise, to ensure these projects have a measurable, positive climate impact
• "Build on the success of Frontier by making an advance market commitment to collectively contract for up to 20 million tons of carbon removal from these nature-based carbon removal projects
• "Share lessons and best practices publicly along the way, to drive transparency and confidence in nature’s ability to remove carbon from the atmosphere.”

The giants join forces

According to sustainability leaders, the nature of the coalition – particularly the profile of the four partners – offers hope of real impact.

Adam Elman, Sustainability Lead at Google, said: “The path to a net-zero future will need high-quality nature-based carbon removals.

“That's why I'm excited to see Google, Meta, Salesforce and Microsoft joining forces to accelerate progress in this critical area. Together, we can create a more sustainable world.”

Carbon removal projects explained

A Google press release explains that nature-based carbon removal projects, like the restoration of trees and mangroves in damaged ecosystems, are “an important tool to mitigate climate change and a scalable way to remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere”.

It adds: “But nature is complex and dynamic and it’s full of interdependent ecological and economic systems. This means the climate impact of these projects can be hard to measure and verify, which in turn makes it difficult to scale these projects to their full potential.”

This is where Symbiosis comes in.

Google says: “Symbiosis will work to solve this by setting a new benchmark for best-in-class nature restoration projects that have a high certainty of positive climate impact.

“We’ll develop shared criteria for project design and measurement, update these criteria based on the latest science and pool demand for carbon removal credits that meet our high bar.”

It says the coalition will focus minds on other factors that make nature restoration projects so compelling, from restoring native species and wildlife biodiversity to equitably involving and compensating Indigenous and other local communities.

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