Climate Impact Partners has executed a major long-term financing agreement with Terra Natural Capital to scale the 20,000-hectare Panna afforestation project in Madhya Pradesh, with tech giant Microsoft contracting 1.5 million tonnes of verified carbon removal credits over a 30-year period.
The deal represents Microsoft’s first carbon removal project in India and its largest nature-based off-take agreement across the Asia-Pacific region, accounting for 50 per cent of the initiative’s total expected carbon sequestration output.
Financed by Terra Natural Capital and developed by Climate Impact Partners alongside local implementation organizations, the project aims to plant up to 11.6 million mixed native trees across degraded farmer and community lands. Following three years of pilot operations and due diligence, more than 1.2 million trees have already been planted across 100 local communities.
Key operational, ecological, and economic components of the development include:
- Direct community revenue: Participating farmers will receive direct revenue shares from carbon credit sales, alongside income from fruit and medicinal produce harvested from the planted trees.
- Water infrastructure and agriculture: Incorporates large-scale water conservation systems—including retention ponds, borewells, and drip irrigation—complemented by training programmes in climate-smart farming techniques.
- Biodiversity restoration: Prioritises native tree species to restore local ecosystems, rebuild topsoil, and improve wildlife habitats across degraded land.
- High-integrity certification: Utilises Verra’s VM0047 Afforestation, Reforestation and Revegetation Methodology, aligned with the Integrity Council for the Voluntary Carbon Market’s Core Carbon Principles and verified under the Climate, Community and Biodiversity Standard.
Sheri Hickok, Chief Executive Officer of Climate Impact Partners, stated that long-term corporate off-take commitments provide the financial certainty required to scale large-scale nature-based carbon removal infrastructure while delivering tangible economic benefits to vulnerable rural communities.
Brian Marrs, Senior Director of Energy Markets at Microsoft, added that high-quality nature-based projects form a core pillar of the company’s global carbon removal portfolio, driving capital directly into local land restoration and community development across India.
