deCarbonized #21: Blockchain for accelerating energy transition; Funding for biodiversity tokenization

💡 Spotlight story

New guidance aims to stop corporate greenwashing

Last week, the Voluntary Carbon Markets Integrity Initiative (VCMI) released a provisional Claims Code of Practice, which seeks to ensure that offsetting delivers climate benefits and avoids greenwashing.

The Code comprises four steps that organisations should take to make credible claims about their use of voluntary carbon credits:

1. Ensure that a science-aligned decarbonization target has been adopted
2. Identify whether to make enterprise wide or brand/ service level claims
3. Purchase high quality credits from a recognized standard, which where relevant include protecting human rights and promoting positive social and environmental co-benefits
4. Report transparently on the outcomes of these offset projects

Participants will then receive a Gold, Silver or Bronze rating, depending on the amount of credits purchased to cover their carbon target and any potential undershoot. The Code therefore seeks to reward achievement and incentivise ongoing improvement.

Over the next 3 months a range of firms will simulate implementation of the Code, providing feedback through a structured survey and deep-dive interviews to finalise its design. 11 organizations have already signed up, including Google, Unilever and Hitachi.

The Code follows the recent launch of the Carbon Credit Quality scoring tool, which also seeks to address the key aim of increasing VCM integrity.

You can watch the full launch event here.

📢 Top news picks

• Bayer Trendlines invests in soil carbon MRV start-up TierraSpec
• IOTA Foundation joins Dell to develop real-time carbon footprint data
• Experts publish roadmap for scaling UK nature-based environmental markets
• Cement industry will rely on carbon capture utilisation and storage for 36% of its 2050 net zero target
• Carbon removal industry draws $2 billion to funding climate action
• Verra to release new biochar methodologies next month

💵 If you’re a VC or interested in more investment news, check out the web3 for climate newsletter

⛓ Market action

Weekly carbon stats

Toucan Protocol is building carbon market infrastructure to finance the world's best climate solutions. These are our on-chain stats from 07- 12.06.22:

Carbon prices as of 13.06.22, with 7 day change:

BCT - $2.06  (+0.1%)  |   NCT - $2.54 (-54.3%)

NGEO - $10.38 (-4%)    |   GEO  $4.61 (-7.8%)   |   EU-ETS $82.35 (-5.4%)

🦜 Want to learn more about Toucan? Check out Season 2 of our Twitter spaces!

🔍 Research in Focus

Blockchain for accelerating clean energy transition

The EU Blockchain Observatory and Forum have published a new report exploring blockchain applications in the energy sector and how they are being commercially scaled.

Digitalization and decentralization represent two core elements of the clean energy transition, with blockchain technology considered key in accelerating progress in these areas. Blockchain-based projects are developing various new opportunities to enable transactive energy systems and markets, including:

• Mitigating renewable energy risks by ensuring transparency, integrity and traceability of transactions and reporting.
• Decoupling smart- and micro-grids from the control of intermediaries, enabling 'prosumer' markets
• Managing the complexity of future energy markets, including real-time coordination of electricity supply and demand data and management of energy storage capacities
• Enabling  reporting compliance with sustainable finance and ESG criteria

The report highlights that three project areas are now moving forward from proof-of-concept to larger scale role out:

• Flexibility services- manage the generation and distribution of increasing amounts of small scale, distributed and intermittent renewable energy and EV charging.
• Energy attributes certificates- provide legitimacy of clean energy used and enable its transparent trading.
• Digital identities of energy assets- enables the development of trusted decentralized energy networks.

Six different case studies go on to explore the progress made in these areas, featuring BMW, FlexiDAO, Energy Web, Powerledger and the German Government.

The report concludes with EU and national policy recommendations to help facilitate the roll out of web3 solutions, including:

• Standardisation of digital and self-sovereign identities.
• National regulatory authorities should allow small-scale (less that 1 MW) flexibility assets to participate in flexibility markets.
• Regulatory sandboxes should be created, where regulated entities such as transmission and distribution system operators are able to test and evaluate blockchain solutions.

You can read the full report here.

💼 Jobs board

• Senior Digital Systems Director, Gold Standard - US or EU remote
• Community Engagement Manager, Thallo - EU remote
• Product Manager - Crypto, Nori - Seattle, US
• Clean Energy Technology Analyst (CCUS), IHS Markit - Austin, US
• Product Manager - Ecological Data, Regen Network - US remote

🌳 Hot in web3

Development bank call for the use of digital tokens in biodiversity and climate action

IDB Lab, the innovation laboratory of the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), is launching a call to identify innovative solutions that make use of digital tokens to promote biodiversity conservation.

The Digital Tokens for Biodiversity Innovation Challenge is a joint effort from the Natural Capital Lab and LACChain, the global alliance for the blockchain development in Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC). Solutions are being sought that solve environmental challenges and have a positive impact on poor and vulnerable populations.

The challenge remains open until August 2022, check out more information or apply here.

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