A benchmark for robust due diligence: BeZero publishes lessons from projects in Microsoft's carbon portfolio

BeZero Carbon has published 14 ex ante rating reports analysing projects on behalf of Microsoft, making this one of the most comprehensive collections of a single buyer’s diligence portfolio published to date.

The market for carbon credits is evolving, with new methodologies, regulatory regimes and projects emerging at pace. Rigorous pre-issuance due diligence is becoming a defining feature of this new market as a way to account for project-level risk before projects come online, and also for providing the market with both a simple metric to compare project quality and the deep diligence to identify and mitigate project risks.

A leader in this market, Microsoft has ambitions to become carbon negative by 2030 and to remove the equivalent of all its cumulative historical emissions by 2050 — having contracted more than 45 million tonnes of high-quality carbon dioxide removal (CDR) in fiscal year 2025 alone. The scale of that ambition makes the quality of individual projects matter enormously.

As a market leader, Microsoft takes its role as innovator, first-mover, and mentor seriously.

By making these ex ante ratings public, Microsoft is providing critical information to all market participants: 

• Project developers can see what kind of projects make the grade for the biggest buyer of carbon removals in the market

• Investors can assess what to look out for before committing capital

• Advisers and marketplaces can use the analysis to enhance their due diligence when procuring and recommending projects

• Corporate buyers can use the reports as a benchmark for quality and de-risk their procurement decisions

If a project isn’t yet rated by BeZero, anyone can request a pre-issuance rating to inform their in-house due diligence and carbon decision making.

Independent, in-depth project risk assessments

Microsoft annually articulates its view on what high-quality CDR looks like through its Criteria for High-Quality Carbon Dioxide Removal. Its engagement of BeZero’s analytical team for independent assessments for projects across its portfolio reflects the kind of rigorous third-party scrutiny those criteria demand, and that builds broader market confidence for everyone involved.

Each of the reports is a full ex ante carbon rating assessment, conducted since 2024, comprising carbon risk factor analysis, project execution risk and beyond carbon assessments.

Carbon risk analysis looks at additionality, carbon accounting and permanence. Project execution risk analysis evaluates operational and delivery risks that could affect credit issuance.

Independent beyond carbon assessments, included in some of the reports, examine a project’s potential risks and benefits — such as environmental and community impacts. Because these impacts are important considerations for investment decisions, the Microsoft Carbon Removal team collaborated with BeZero’s Beyond Carbon experts to develop the risk and benefit assessment product, and are now fully incorporated into BeZero’s offering.

Analysis at scale: a cross-section of the market

The 14 projects span four sectors: Improved Forest Management (IFM), soil carbon, biochar, and agroforestry. They are located across the United States, Argentina, India, and Peru. Project developers include both established names alongside emerging players, making the portfolio a genuine cross-section of the nature-based and technology-based solutions currently being developed at scale.

Carried out by BeZero’s in-house science team of subject matter experts across forestry, carbon removal, soil carbon, and geospatial analysis, the breadth of sectors and geographies covered means these reports serve as a benchmark for what robust pre-issuance due diligence looks like across very different project types — from US forestry to South American soil carbon to biochar in Peru.

Who can access the reports

The publication of these reports gives a snapshot of independent in-depth due diligence at scale from one of the market’s most influential actors.

The full reports are available to subscribers on the BeZero Carbon Markets platform, a community of over 1,000 market participants with full platform access. Freemium users can access headline rating assessments, providing wider market visibility into this portfolio.

BeZero is grateful to Microsoft and the project developers involved for making public these previously private reports.