Amazon buys rice carbon credits

Amazon has agreed to spend $30 million to buy carbon credits tied to lower-methane rice farming in India. (thehindubusinessline.com) The credits will come from The Good Rice Alliance, a Bayer-linked project working with more than 13,000 smallholder farmers across about 35,000 hectares. Amazon is the primary buyer for more than 685,000 tonnes of carbon credits under the long-term offtake agreement announced April 22. (tgra.in) Rice fields release methane when they stay flooded, and The Good Rice Alliance says conventional paddy cultivation accounts for 8% to 10% of global methane emissions. The project says it cuts those emissions by changing water use and planting methods in Indian rice fields. (tgra.in) Bayer said in April 2025 that its India rice program was preparing up to 250,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide-equivalent credits for validation, certification and issuance by Gold Standard. The company said farmers were adopting practices including direct-seeded rice, which uses less standing water than transplanted rice. (bayer.com) Gold Standard says its rice methodology measures methane cuts from steps such as alternate wetting and drying, shorter flooding periods and a shift from transplanted rice to direct-seeded rice. It also says reductions must be verified by an independent audit before credits are issued. (goldstandard.org) The deal lands as large companies keep buying credits but face tighter scrutiny over whether projects produce real, measurable climate benefits. In the voluntary carbon market, buyers have pushed developers toward project types with clearer monitoring and third-party verification. (goldstandard.org) (thehindubusinessline.com) The Good Rice Alliance said its field teams use direct closed-chamber methane measurements in paddies, not only modelled estimates, to quantify reductions. Bayer’s India carbon lead, Suhas Joshi, said the Amazon agreement reflects demand for “rigorously measured” methane credits and said farmers would remain “at the center of the value created.” (tgra.in) (thehindubusinessline.com) The scale is larger than Bayer’s first announced India issuance a year ago, which covered up to 250,000 tonnes of credits across 11 states. Amazon’s purchase signals that agricultural methane projects are moving from pilot volumes toward multi-year corporate procurement. (bayer.com) (economictimes.indiatimes.com) What happens next is less about the announcement than the delivery: the credits still have to be measured, verified and issued over time, while farmers keep using the lower-methane practices that make the reductions possible. (goldstandard.org) (tgra.in)