The Blockchain Infrastructure Carbon Offset Working Group (BICOWG) applauds the Dec. 15 announcement of a Legal Due Diligence Questionnaire for Related Instruments by The Verified Carbon Standard (VERRA) — a widely accepted standard for certifying carbon emissions reductions.
"As pioneers in the crypto carbon space, it’s encouraging to see this announcement from Verra — it is truly a dream come true. I imagine we’re not far off from Verra adopting blockchain tech in a meaningful capacity," said Joshua Bjiak, CTO at Creol.
The move by Verra opens the door to tokenizing officially sanctioned units and heralds a new day for close collaboration between the traditional carbon market space and the decentralized climate finance community. BICOWG and its member organizations look forward to supporting this collaboration and furthering the critical work to combine "the best of the carbon market" and the "best of crypto" to achieve effective climate action at a massive scale.
Joseph Pallant, founder of Blockchain for Climate Foundation, stated, "We’ve seen the carbon market develop excellent carbon offset standards, protocols, and projects over more than 20 years. The opportunity to ever more securely and transparently bridge these off-chain environmental assets onto the blockchain creates a win-win, enabling crypto projects to incorporate real carbon offsets, thereby funding proven, verified climate action on the ground, around the world."
There’s been significant growth in new projects working proactively to beat climate change through generation, purchase, and retirement of carbon credits, including Klima DAO, Regen Network, Toucan Protocol, Blockchain for Climate, and others. Moves by traditional carbon market leaders like Verra to extend their diligence and expertise into the blockchain space will enable further growth of on-chain carbon market.
This year’s exponential growth of innovative blockchain and climate projects was made possible by the committed efforts of early pioneers. Looking ahead to 2022, BICOWG is buoyed to see the growing pathways for collaboration between these two spaces, and the impetus to weave in additional initiatives together in the spirit of halting the destruction brought in by climate change.
Gregory Landua, CEO of Regen Network Development, stated, "by embracing blockchain technology and data standards, Verra and other pillars can lead the way towards scaling, transparency, and governance needed to reverse atmospheric carbon accumulation. The agile DAOs and Web3 teams building open source tools and the existing institutions are natural allies in the emerging regenerative finance movement."
About BICOWG: Blockchain Infrastructure Carbon Offset Working Group is a coalition of blockchain protocols, projects, and nonprofits working together to explore carbon measurement methodology and incentivize carbon markets. Core working group members include Regen Network, Klima DAO, Toucan, SZNS, FungyProof, F2Pool/Stakefish, Blockchain for Climate, and Gitcoin.
