Google to purchase one million rice-methane carbon credits from Indian startup Mitti Labs

Google announced a four-year purchase of 1 million carbon credits from Indian climate-tech firm Mitti Labs, marking the biggest publicly announced rice-methane credit transaction so far. The credits will be generated on rice farms in Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh and Telangana, reaching a peak of about 100,000 hectares. Mitti Labs will compensate farmers for adopting water-saving practices that halve methane emissions and reduce irrigation use by roughly 40% while maintaining yields.

The company’s GeoAI system combines high-resolution satellite radar imagery with field data to track soil moisture and flooding, enabling third-party verification under Gold Standard or Isometric standards. Although the price was not revealed, the partnership is intended to give Mitti Labs the scale needed to expand its farmer network, which already exceeds 100,000 and aims for millions by 2030, and to launch projects in the Philippines later this year and Indonesia by 2027. Google’s move supports its broader goal of net-zero emissions by 2030 amid rising corporate emissions.