Google to buy 1 million carbon credits from India’s Mitti Labs
Google has agreed to purchase 1 million carbon credits from Indian climate startup Mitti Labs by 2030. The four-year agreement covers rice farms in the Indian states of Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh and Telangana and is expected to reach approximately 100,000 hectares during the project’s peak implementation period, TechCrunch reports.
The companies call the arrangement the largest publicly announced deal for credits generated through reducing methane emissions from rice cultivation. The financial terms of the contract were not disclosed.
Reducing field flooding
Under the project, farmers will be paid to introduce practices that reduce the duration of flooding in rice fields. This is expected to reduce methane emissions from rice cultivation and the use of irrigation water.
According to Mitti Labs’ estimate, this approach could reduce methane emissions by around 50% and irrigation water use by around 40% without lowering yields. The startup also says its projects have saved more than 500 billion liters of water over the past two years.
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Mitti Labs co-founder Xavier Laguarta said that before signing the agreement, Google reviewed the startup’s monitoring technology and visited farms. Founded in 2023, the company, which has offices in New York and Bengaluru, uses a GeoAI platform that combines satellite radar imagery with field measurements to track crop growth, soil moisture and flooding on small farms.
Certification and expansion
The credits for Google may be issued under the Gold Standard or Isometric certification systems. According to Laguarta, before credits are issued, projects undergo independent third-party verification as part of the certification process.
Mitti Labs already works with more than 100,000 farmers and plans to involve millions by 2030. The company intends to begin operations in the Philippines later this year and expand to Indonesia and other Southeast Asian markets in 2027.
This is not Google’s first investment in carbon credits in India. In January 2025, the company signed an agreement with Varaha to purchase 100,000 tonnes of carbon credits. Google also stated in its environmental report that its greenhouse gas emissions in 2025 increased by 18% year-on-year, to approximately 14.5 million tonnes of CO₂ equivalent.
