Single.Earth will replace carbon credits in Blockchain

Single.Earth founders Andrus Aaslaid and Merit Valdsalu

With the future of blockchain-based carbon credits in doubt, EQT-backed Estonian firm Single.Earth launched a new standard for biodiversity and carbon credits.

TALLINN, ESTONIA, Aug. 3, 2022 /EINPresswire.com/ — EQT-backed Estonian company Single.Earth launched a new standard for biodiversity and carbon credits, coming out of stealth mode with its scientific platform.

With an international team of more than 20 interdisciplinary researchers, including ecologists, environmental scientists and physicists, the company has focused on sorting out the shortcomings of today’s carbon credits.

More importantly, the team has tackled the questions of biodiversity loss and why net-zero policies still translate into mass extinction, but possibly on a somewhat less overheated planet.

“At some point we understood that classic carbon credits will not save the planet. Climate, maybe. Biosphere – no!” said CEO and founder of Single.Earth, Merit Valdsalu.

On May 25, Verra, the operator of the world’s largest carbon credit program, banned the creation of instruments or tokens based on retired carbon credits and said it was evaluating the future of tokenizations of its credits. On May 30, The American Carbon Registry (ACR) prohibited tokenization of ACR carbon offset credits unless expressly authorized by ACR.

Single.Earth created the MERIT token for the crypto market. The token creates new opportunities to quickly and transparently slow down deforestation on a global scale. It provides access to the nature-based service market to small landowners for whom the voluntary carbon market is out of reach.

Born as a blockchain token, it has been designed from the ground up as a scientific instrument, reflecting the value of nature in a compatible way for the Web3 world and increasing the interest of innovative companies and crypto-savvy private investors.

“We have created a digital twin of no less than a planet that reflects the ecosystem service value of every piece of land on Earth,” said Single.Earth CTO and co-founder Andrus Aaslaid.

“We are one of the few companies today that knows how much forest there is on the planet and how much carbon these forests are sequestering at any given time. That’s a good start. It’s enough to start acting on the results of these models and have people who ‘own’ the trees and species to be rewarded for being good custodians of them,” he said.

Single.Earth says the symbol can replace the classic carbon instruments and the voluntary market by looking at the world more holistically and taking into account species and habitats in addition to carbon.

“Nature is constantly changing – we cannot tackle the climate crisis without considering biodiversity loss, and vice versa. We need to see nature and its ecosystems as an interconnected and multidimensional system,” said Donalda Karnauskaite, head of research at Single.Earth.

“Our growing appetite for timber and agriculture has put the planet in a very difficult position. Planting new trees to offset CO2 money is not going to save us if we continue to destroy the forests and lands that support us today,” concluded Merit Valdsalu.

Single.Earth was founded by Merit Valdsalu and Andrus Aaslaid at the end of 2019 with a mission to protect nature, based on making saving forests as profitable for landowners as cutting them is. The company’s investors include EQT Ventures, Icebreaker.VC, Ragnar Sass and Martin Henk, the founders of Pipedrive.

Tarmo Virki
Single.Earth
+372 564 4562
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