Blockchain for Climate Collaboration workshop at #Innovate4Climate this week in Singapore

This was first published in Noteworthy - The Journal Blog. View original post here.

Marco Schletz, Blockchain for Climate Foundation’s Expert on UN Mechanisms will be delivering a workshop Friday, June 7th at Innovate4Climate in Singapore. He will be discussing Blockchain for Climate Foundation’s work “putting the Paris Agreement on the Blockchain” — connecting the National Carbon Inventories of the world to enable cross border collaboration in emissions reductions.

He’s co-presenting with Synergy Blockchain Technology, who are talking about their “VER Trade”, the innovative blockchain-based marketplace for voluntary carbon market, by Synergy Inc. and the World Bank’s Carbon Markets and Innovation Practice (GCCMI) and Technology and Innovation Lab (ITSTI) who are presenting on generation, issuance and “warehousing” of Mitigation Outcomes with IoT and blockchain, to enhance the next generation of climate markets. Marco’s presentation will cover the registration, exchange and retirement of “Blockchain Internationally Transferred Mitigation Outcomes” (BITMOs), on our blockchain platform — sharing a vision for how to operationalize this critical aspect of Article 6 of the Paris Agreement.

The imperative to develop this blockchain platform is drawn from the need to create a transparent, accessible platform on which to transact the world’s carbon trading. We envision a tool that can be used by anyone with a smart phone to view, transact and audit the transfer of emissions reductions. This helps market participants, researchers and the general public to engage with what will truly be the most important market on earth. The opportunity to bring this access to society at large has profound potential to help people understand and trust the emissions reductions actions being taken within their country, and around the globe. In today’s world, especially with regards to the climate fight, trust is often in short supply — and something we desperately need more of.

The Blockchain for Climate platform is being built for deployment on a sidechain of the “Ethereum 2.0” blockchain using “Proof of Authority” algorithms that draw a fraction of the energy demand used by today’s “Proof of Work.” The “Proof of Authority” design is well tailored to the UNFCCC system, enabling every country in the world to help oversee and secure the blockchain.

It took a technological breakthrough to see how to build and scale a blockchain registry+exchange system that can encompass the volume of emissions reductions necessary to stop climate change. The big “aha” came in the invention of “Non-Fungible Tokens” from the ERC-721 and ERC-998 Ethereum token standards. These blockchain tools are being utilized to generate unique, 1tCO2e tokens that each carry all pertinent data on their genesis under Paris Agreement 6.2 or 6.4. This is critical for the scaling of a system that will circulate billions of tonnes of emissions reductions outcomes from tens of thousands of projects/programs. Recent insights into the ERC-20 token standard have opened up the door for consideration of that pathway as well.

Each BITMO token tells exactly when and where it was made, where it’s been, what standard it used, and whether it has proper national permissions to be transferred across borders. As the blockchain is a tamper resistant, distributed record, the relationship between tradable carbon units and the emission reduction that created them is preserved forever. In this fashion, we can create a trusted, secure unit of account within the Paris Agreement that allows all countries, businesses and citizens of the world to link their climate goals, and march forward together. At any one time, some parties will be able to contribute more to the climate fight, and others less. By building a secure, transparent mechanism that incentivizes emissions reductions anywhere in the world, we can drive net global emissions down farther, faster, and give ourselves a fighting chance to beat climate change.

Hosting this workshop at I4C 2019 in Singapore will give attendees the opportunity to explore the functionality of a platform being built to put the Paris Agreement on the blockchain, and learn more about both the “climate” and “blockchain” paradigms so critical to its success.

If you’re at Innovate4Climate in Singapore this week, make sure you get out to see Marco on Friday!