How blockchain technology is used to save the environment

In her monthly Expert Take column, Selva Ozelli, an international tax lawyer and CPA, covers the intersection of new technologies and sustainability, and provides the latest developments around taxes, AML / CFT regulations and legal issues affecting crypto and blockchain.

In June, the UN held its event “Stockholm + 50: a healthy planet for prosperity for all – our responsibility, our opportunity” event, focusing on implementing its decade of action to deliver the sustainability goals, the 2030 agenda, the Paris Agreement, and the Post -2020 Biodiversity Framework, as well as encouraging a green improvement from COVID-19. The event took place 50 years after the first ever UN conference on the human environment in 1972, and gave world leaders the chance to reflect on five decades of environmental measures focused on tackling the earth’s climate, natural and carbon dioxide pollution crises.

My art exhibition “Reef Dwellers” was an associated event at Stockholm + 50. It celebrated the role that oceans play in everyday life and sought to inspire action to protect reefs, which occupy only 0.1% of global ocean surfaces despite supporting more than 25% of marine biodiversity.

Oceans act as large natural carbon reservoirs, absorbing 25% of today’s annual CO2 emissions and housing 80% of all life, while supplying half of the planet’s oxygen. According to the United States National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration:

“More than 90 percent of the warming that has occurred on Earth in the last 50 years has occurred in the ocean.”

The rate at which oceans are warming is equivalent to five Hiroshima atomic bombs being dropped into them every second.

Related: How blockchain technology transforms climate action

How does blockchain help preserve reefs and save the ocean?

Future Thinkers has outlined several major solutions for how blockchain can help protect the environment.

1. Supply chains

Blockchain technology is used to improve the traceability of fish to help stop illegal and unsustainable fishing practices. Fishcoin is a blockchain-based seafood traceability project that “encourages supply chain stakeholders to share data from the point of harvest to the point of consumption” to help create a more open, transparent and responsible seafood industry.

Related: Enterprise blockchain will play a key role in creating a sustainable future

2. Recycling | 3. Environmental agreements

Plastic pollution is a global ecological crisis. In a landmark move on March 2, the UN Environment Assembly agreed to establish a historic international treaty to end plastic pollution. According to the UN, the effort could result in an 80% reduction in the volume of plastic entering the sea by 2040, a 55% reduction in new plastic production and a 25% reduction in greenhouse gas emissions. It could also save governments $ 70 billion by 2040 and create 700,000 additional jobs, primarily in the global south.

One project that addresses the plastic pollution problem is Diatom DAO, which has proposed a tokenized framework for plastic removal. The goal is to take advantage of the opportunities for decentralized finance (DeFi) to build a reliable, verifiable, efficient supply chain for plastic removal that increases recycling, reduces use, finances high-impact removal projects, establishes new channels for circularity and drives innovation in new materials.

4. Energy

Since the beginning of the industrial revolution, the ocean has seen a 30% increase in acidity thanks to the absorption of carbon dioxide. Captura seeks to use solar-powered, liquid plants to extract CO2 from the ocean, while Toucan Protocol is building the infrastructure for a carbon market to finance world-class climate solutions in an attempt to accelerate the transition to net zero carbon according to The Paris Agreement.

5. non-profit organizations

OceanDrop is a charitable non-fungible token project from the Open Earth Foundation, a non-profit organization dedicated to developing open source climate action technology. The proceeds from the NFT sale, which is linked to carbon offsets, support a pilot project aimed at expanding the protected sea areas on Cocos Island and Costa Rica.

Crypto Coral Tribe is an NFT project that manages 50% of the proceeds of marine and wildlife conservation initiatives. The goal is to form a creative hub that utilizes art and technology to help restore the natural world. It hopes to plant 3,000 corals worldwide through its network of marine conservation partners, including the Coral Guardian, Coral Triangle Center and Turks and Caicos Reef Fund.

6. Carbon tax | 7. Change of incentives

US President Joe Biden came to office with a plan to move Americans away from fossil fuels, and he demonstrated the purpose of a regulatory agenda that included carbon taxes. However, the Supreme Court and Russia’s war in Ukraine changed his climate plans.

Related: The UN’s COP26 target for climate change includes new technology and carbon taxes

The views, thoughts and opinions expressed herein are those of the author alone and do not necessarily reflect or represent the views and opinions of Cointelegraph.