The effects of greenhouse gas emissions can be felt around the world. Even our most basic activities have subtle carbon emissions that we are not fully aware of. Every financial transaction we make leaves a carbon footprint, from fueling our car to booking a flight to the most subtle like turning on your bedside lamp.
Today, countries and companies are trying to redesign their products and services to reduce their carbon footprint. Despite technological progress, there is still a lack of global and standardized systems for the precise measurement of CO2 emissions. Without such systems, sustainable approaches have only a limited impact.
After years of study, experts have looked into using blockchain technology to measure and identify carbon emissions and develop more effective methods of sequestering carbon.
For the layman, blockchain is a kind of database. It is the technology that made the existence of the most famous cryptocurrency Bitcoin possible. The difference between a regular database and a blockchain is the data structure. Blockchain gathers data in groups that contain information called blocks. These blocks have specific storage capacities which, when they are filled, are concatenated with the previously filled block and form a data chain.
We know that blockchain stores data for monetary transactions, but little do we know that it is also a reliable way to store other types of data transactions. An example of this is IBM’s Blockchain Food Trust, which was developed to track the path of a food. It can track the path of a food from its origin through every stop to delivery. This blockchain technology is designed to help with the myriad outbreaks of E-Coli, Salmonella and other dangerous chemicals that accidentally get into food. In the past, it took weeks to months to find the source of these outbreaks, but now, with the help of blockchain technology, they can be tracked in just minutes.
But how will blockchain help with carbon sequestration?
If we know something is bad for us but don’t know how to measure it, how can we reduce it? In order to reduce our CO2 emissions, we need to be aware of how much carbon footprint we create. We therefore need a technology that can accurately and reliably measure, track and collect our emissions. Gathering CO2 emissions on a blockchain network creates a platform to measure them and helps manage a network that can report emissions in a stable and tamper-proof audit trail.
One example is the Mercedes-Benz pilot project for the transparency of CO2 emissions. The blockchain will be able to monitor the production of car batteries and the associated CO2 emissions.
Imagine a world in which CO2 emissions can be tracked transparently and reliably. Companies will be able to sell a product and consider the carbon footprint it causes. And governments will be able to transparently map and track emissions. And most importantly, consumers will be able to understand the environmental impact of the products they buy – both positive and negative. And with millions of microtransactions, it will scale to make a huge collective impact.
We also use measurement, tracking and reporting to ensure that emission-reducing projects are more accurate, more transparent and more cost-effective in achieving their claimed impact.
Nowadays, countries have different approaches to measuring CO2 and calculating CO2 credits, which leads to challenges such as high effort and costs, inaccurate prices, poor regulation and low acceptance. The emissions certificate system is thus a step in the right direction, but the lack of standardization limits its effectiveness. Blockchain technology uses distributed ledger systems and auditable trades, making it a suitable solution to address these issues.
Reducing global carbon is something that governments, organizations and individuals must work together on. So it is not an exaggeration to say that we must all take responsibility for the carbon consequences of any actions we take. By creating a global, trusted and accessible carbon tracking technology using new blockchain technologies available to us, we are on the verge of doing so.
Article Posted by: Katreena
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Author’s biography: Katreena is a scientist and life hack specialist. She is the author of scientific journals on biotechnology and molecular biology. To take a break from scientific journals, she writes on lifestyle, health, and sustainability. She firmly believes that kindness rules the world.