Reading notes from article by RACHEL WOLFSON published on Cointelegraph.
Ripple — a fintech company that allows banks, payment providers and digital asset exchanges to send money using blockchain — has committed to becoming carbon net-zero by 2030.
Ripple focuses on reducing its carbon emissions by making sustainable choices, purchasing carbon offsets and investing in carbon-removal technologies.
Using blockchain to accelerate low-carbon electricity systems
The Energy Web Foundation and Ripple have created “Energy Web Zero,” a new open-source tool designed to enable any blockchain network to decarbonize by purchasing “tokenized” renewable energy.
The Energy Web Zero application establishes digital identities for real-world assets such as large-scale wind and solar facilities around the world. Once these assets are tied to a digital identity, that data is anchored to the Energy Web blockchain, which powers the Energy Web Zero application. Digital energy attribute certificates are then produced from this data to represent renewable energy.
Transparency
Blockchain being used to achieve carbon neutrality makes a lot of sense due to the transparency inherently baked into the technology.
Companies like Google can claim to be eliminating their carbon footprints by purchasing high-quality offsets, yet they are not revealing what, and for what amount, those offsets are.
A public blockchain network will always have proof of the transactions taking place.
Open source platforms are critical for transparency and trust, which is the big difference here.
Tokenizing energy attribute certificates and putting them on a blockchain network may be challenging due to unclear regulations and a lack of industry standards.
Understanding whether or not tokenization is effective depends on whether or not the assets tie back to actual, credible, standardized carbon credits.
The establishment and transactability of such value will require standardization, asset classification systems, and generally-acceptable climate accounting principles.
These tokenized credits should also provide better liquidity and price discovery than standard carbon credit instruments.
Tokenization thereafter empowers companies an ability to price, track and transact in their net-zero performance, both to achieve their objectives in a credible manner, but also the ability to collateralize and secure forward any number of financial instruments to help scale and finance those efforts.
Nori – a climate-change startup that leverages blockchain – allows anyone to purchase carbon certificates in the form of “Nori Carbon Removal Tonnes” — nonfungible tokens that are retired immediately by the buyers. The platform’s NORI token separately serves as the method of payment or trading mechanism.