Blockchain has been in mass adoption throughout the world, it has been solving the much complex problems which every field had once.
In this article ,we’ll discuss the much rising problem of Climate change and how blockchain can solve it .
Also read: Category wise most popular cryptocurrencies
Each month of 2020 except December was among the top four warmest months on record for the month, according to the 2020 Global Climate Report from NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information. In December, the presence of a moderately strong La Niña event cooled the tropical Pacific Ocean and dampened the global average warmth. December turned out to be the eighth warmest on record.
Based on NOAA’s 2020 Annual Climate Report, land and ocean temperature have increased on average at a rate of 0.13 degrees ( 0.08 degrees Celsius) per decade since 1880, with an average rise of 0.18 degrees ( 0.32°F) since 1981.
In order to combat climate change, blockchain can do the following:
- Efforts are underway to decentralize the energy grid through the Energy Web Token. Homeowners, businesses, and assets will be able to access electricity on demand in a more efficient manner. In the present, there is a big problem with regional energy markets that leads to a lot of wasteful energy consumption. The EWT proposes to fix this by integrating all the power grids – now solar farms that produce electricity in excess for a regional market can send the excess energy anywhere in the country. Renewable energies with storage and intermittency problems (sun only shines during the day, wind sometimes blows, etc…) will find this extremely helpful. In addition, EWT is a blockchain-based platform, so anyone can create a dApp to support a more sustainable/efficient energy grid.
Read the EWT white paper for more information - Currently, NFTs are used mostly for art, but their real value lies in real estate or other assets. The regulatory framework for this also needs to be built, but, for example, an apartment building could be built and then sold as an NFT. The building could have been divided into 30 NFTs if there were 30 units. A buyer of the NFT would be entitled to the rents received by the specific unit (a dividend). In the context of climate change the same thing could be done for Solar Farms, wind farms, or other real assets. For the construction of a solar farm, an investor could hold an NFT auction instead of getting a loan. NFT investors would receive a dividend on the solar farm’s revenues in addition to a percent equity stake in the asset. The process is hardly straightforward and requires a regulatory framework, but it is being worked on, so it will likely become a reality. The following white paper describes LABS, an initiative seeking to help real estate become NFTs.
- Decentralized carbon credit markets. Carbon credits are currently used by corporations to offset their carbon footprints. Dealers are centralized in this process. By decentralizing the system, it opens the floodgates to a wide range of investors and could boost carbon capture and offset, which should reduce atmospheric CO2. The University of Wyoming has published a paper by Dr. Soheil Saraji and Dr. Mike Borowczak that provides in-depth insight into how the blockchain might be used in carbon credit exchanges
- Currently, NFTs are used mostly for art, but their real value lies in real estate or other assets. The regulatory framework for this also needs to be built, but, for example, an apartment building could be built and then sold as an NFT. The building could have been divided into 30 NFTs if there were 30 units. A buyer of the NFT would be entitled to the rents received by the specific unit (a dividend). In the context of climate change the same thing could be done for Solar Farms, wind farms, or other real assets. For the construction of a solar farm, an investor could hold an NFT auction instead of getting a loan. NFT investors would receive a dividend on the solar farm’s revenues in addition to a percent equity stake in the asset. The process is hardly straightforward and requires a regulatory framework, but it is being worked on, so it will likely become a reality. The following white paper describes LABS, an initiative seeking to help real estate become NFTs.
- Lastly, and this is more speculative, but there could be a “carbon coin” awarded to entities that sequester 1 ton of carbon. As long as the value of the coin matches the current spot price of carbon (fifty to one hundred dollars per ton), it could help incentivize the reduction of carbon emissions. Similarly to how bitcoin operates with a “proof of work” system, this token would operate with a “proof of capture” system. Alternatively, you could correlate the quantity of CO2 in the atmosphere with the amount of tokens circulating. Currently, this would imply an inflationary supply, but if enough carbon were trapped, the price would fall. I’m unsure of how it would work, but I think it’d be a good plan. NORI attempted to do something similar in its white paper: https://nori.com/resources/white-paper
