Google has signed its largest carbon dioxide removal (CDR) purchase to date, inking an agreement with Terradot that will also include methane abatement.
Under the agreement, Google is investing in 1 million metric tons of CO2e methane elimination by 2030 and 1 million metric tons of permanent carbon removal by 2040.
These results will be delivered through Terradot’s operations in southern Brazil, where its team will help farmers adopt alternate wetting and drying (AWD) and enhanced rock weathering (ERW) on more than 200,000 hectares of rice farms.
Alternate wetting and drying is an irrigation practice that includes periodically draining flooded rice paddies. This approach drastically reduces methane emissions, delivering immediate climate results.
For the Enhanced Rock Weathering, Terradot will spread naturally sourced, crushed volcanic rock across the selected project area, where the rock material will dissolve over time, permanently removing CO2 emissions from the atmosphere.
Google’s vision on superpollutant mitigation and CDR
This agreement represents the first publicly announced project to combine immediate climate impact through superpolutant curbing with lasting impact via durable CDR at this large scale, all within a single agricultural system.
Through this purchase, Google is demonstrating a real-world example of the time-diversified portfolio proposed in its 2026 Environmental Report and is implementing the guidelines for combining superpollutant abatement with CDR, outlined in its Sustained Neutralization of the Warming Response to Emissions through a Portfolio of GHG Mitigation Strategies paper.
According to a recent UN report, in order to limit how high and how long temperatures spike, our planet will need scaled use of both short-lived superpollutant abatement and carbon removal.
Relevant: Google Releases New Warming Neutralization Portfolio That Combines CDR With Superpollutant Abatement
This is exactly what Google’s investment intends to support. The fast-acting methane elimination secures the time needed for the crushed rock material to fully dissolve. As the short-lived methane impact fades away, the permanent CDR will be activated to replace it.
According to Google, when measured on a temperature-over-time basis, this approach of combining AWD with ERW will ensure a net decrease in warming on every time horizon.
With this deal, the tech company hopes to create a replicable model that can be applied to other rice-growing regions around the world. To that end, Google is funding research on the methane-reducing potential of AWD in different global rice systems.
Read more: Google Now Offering Over $6M In Research Funding For CDR And Superpollutant Solutions
