Google has agreed to purchase 1 million carbon credits from Mitti Labs, a startup helping smallholder rice farmers in India adopt Alternate Wetting and Drying (AWD). The four-year deal targets more than 100,000 hectares and 70,000 farmers, with projected methane cuts of up to 50% and irrigation water savings near 40%. The credits carry an A rating from Sylvera and rely on satellite-based monitoring to verify field-level changes. This is part of Google's broader shift toward superpollutant reductions alongside durable carbon removal. Methane has a much stronger near-term warming effect than CO2, so cutting it can slow warming faster. The article also explains the difference between the program's 3 million tonne CO2-equivalent estimate over 20 years and the 1 million tonne figure under GWP100, a distinction buyers should watch when comparing credit portfolios.
