Climate, Carbon Management & more
- jimm1
Key Points
- Needs p2p DER trading system like NSF
- short schedule - lot of work to deliver by 2/2/20
- complex requirements for approver logic ( workflow, tables, services, added UI screens )
- need trading dashboard with tabs for offers, bids on the left, matched trades on the right
- manual trading in MVP, automated trading not needed until production solution
- an acre of good forest can offset 2.5 tons of carbon per year
carbon-offsets-urbanforestrynetwork-Trees Improve Our Air Quality.pdf
References
ESG and Governance
- Chainyard ESG presentation - Mohan Venkataraman, Chainyard CTO. link
- ESG Governance Ratings-2023. url link
- IST ESG Framework Grid pdf. link
Climate - multi-national challenges - Decarbonization
- Diversification and Cooperation in a Decarbonizing World - 2023 report url
- Diversification and Cooperation in a Decarbonizing World - 2023 report. link
- Diversification and Cooperation in a Decarbonizing World - 2023 report.pdf file
EBC Project Overview
Industry, Project Name, Organization Name, Description and scope.
Energy Blockchain Consortium
Industry: energy management
Project: EBC - energy management
Peer to Peer energy trading app MVP
- clients can bid, offer and trade energy from residential solar systems over Grid network
- modern trade desk shows bid, offers dynamically to track current market trends visually, manage bids, offers, accept trades
- on ReactJS, NodeJS microservices, Hyperledger Fabric Blockchain and MongoDB
Retail Carbon Management app MVP
- Certified carbon offset provider projects can register on the platform to sell carbon offsets
- Buyers can be retail consumers or businesses trying to offset their carbon footprint
- Carbon calculator and profile show accounts what their net carbon profile is
- Online e-commerce app allows purchasing carbon offsets and other products using payment provider services ( Stripe etc )
- Site designed for multi-currency, testimonials, FAQS, customer blogs
- Integrates Wordpress and plugins as a "headless CMS"
- on ReactJS, NodeJS microservices, Hyperledger Fabric Blockchain, MongoDB and Swift for iPhone
Dev Trading app
https://ebc-dev.sysopsnetwork.com/trade
Climate Action Session - Carbon Mgt - Agri credits & Tokenization
YouTube livestream: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WtPXV0eyAaw
Follow Hyperledger Climate SIG - https://www.linkedin.com/company/90458616/admin/feed/posts/
Potential Value Opportunities
pilot = 2 yrs
prod at national grid after = 2 yrs
3 big goals
- virtualize smeter p2p trading service for nat grid
- create hw package w meters, etc and software for nat grid low income
- other utilities
a> email w docs
a> pilot features, estimates ???
what does a production pilot cost ???
a> how can a smart meter be virtualized here ???
how can we partner w existing energy services companies ???
a> how to package smart meter service to other utilities ???
David King has other energy marketing leads .. Frank
a> see enerblock web site slides
a> new slides on ...
1> dual inverter architecture
2> virtual smart meter
nsf.report>
gsearch - bc poc report
see JIRA, HLR, BOA, bcp folder
diagrams for
use cases
bpm data flows
EBC MVP report model
https://www.hyperledger.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/HL_SolutionsBrief_ReduceCost_V8.pdf
overview
poc goals, value add
poc reqmts map to HLR use cases register user account, create assets, load transactions,
poc environment
poc development
poc testings & findings
poc summary
production architecture
production features
next steps
Candidate Production Requirements
production requirements are driven by functional and non-functional requirements supplied by EBC.
Candidate requirements include:
- The 12 SWT solution themes
- 12 Factor app model for services solutions
- OWASP 10 factor security considerations - data in-flight, at-rest, in-process
- identity methods supported - userId-pwd, digital identities for people?
- device ids, credentials with expirations
- digital id, crypto recovery models for accounts, devices
- KMS - key management system
- handling key rotations for transactions and queries over time
- additional design, test and user documentation
- support for multiple microservices in feathers or other frameworks
- support for functional authorization by role
- support for data authorization by role
- consider automated testing options for API, database, Fabric, UI
- feathers support for microservices, authorization models, external service integration, extended models based on views with edit rules
- configuration support by environment
- real-time screen updates for selected elements using web sockets
- consider UI options for Web, Mobile interfaces
- persistent messaging services as an option to replace the database transaction tables based on performance tests ( Mongo tables or Kafka ?? )
- rethink what is stored on the ledger
- consider a logical global transaction id linking database and ledger updates ( like the last TXID ) now
- consider IoT integration services ( Nodered or Kafka or MQTT or ?? ) for solar smart controllers
- review IoT device integration standards for solar controllers and test with Elcrow PI
- define analytics module for the home owner, for the grid operator showing consumption and production trends, purchases etc
- consider the automated trader feature based on policies
- consider the trade planner feature
- user accounts need policies
- integrate device data to the user account system
- evaluate a rules framework for feathers or ?
- consider Grails for master table maintenance
- decide on Mongo vs MySQL for JSON data
- review CICD pipeline and related tests
- consider better automated management of crypto artifacts in Fabric and usage by the application for signed transactions etc
- consider better event pub sub services model for streaming events
- transaction replay support
References for Production Architecture
Design Node.js Backend architectures
https://afteracademy.com/blog/design-node-js-backend-architecture-like-a-pro
Production Design Concepts
Development Plan of Release 1.0 is coming But we’ll start with a simple framework
Let’s start with a simple framework with some mock functionality. This is work for only 1-2 weeks and does not need to be very sophisticated. Just functional.
Time Frame: One or two weeks.
Functional Overview: Create a simple framework of an application - Use the existing Version of the product we have developed, and add the following. We can use a template to reduce any design work. Focus should not be on design but just to get the functionality working. Go with the assumption that we will do a UI UX design.
More details will be provided next week (June 11)
- Add couple of fields to registration process;
- Create a simple data structure (in off blockchain) as “carbon inventory”. It needs only a few sample fields.
- Add a few tabs to a user’s dashboard with a simple search function to search the carbon inventory. Show results. Create a mock report that shows where the carbon came from.
- Let user purchase a product. Pay for it via Steller or other. Reduce inventory. Create audit trail of the transaction on Blockchain. The mock carbon report should now say that offset was bought.
- Simple Calculator to calculate carbon offset.
- Do 1-2 day research on an open source NFT (Cardona with PoS, Binance or other) options.
Solution Design
Step 1: Individual or Business User Registration (Do Item 15 above)
Modify the current registration process as follows:
- Add a new field to distinguish a user or a business. Do what people are doing to register uses and businesses. IF there I sno better way then, just add a new field called “ I am “ with possible values of “Individual” or “Business”.
- Add a new value in the “Affiliation” field. It’s called “No Affiliation”
- When a new user registers with Affiliation = “No Affiliation” then we do not need to verify a user by approvers because this user has no affiliation s they are just a simple buyer. If this user needs to add his DER assets then we will deal with that use case later.
- The registration process should send an email to person’s email for verification (This is standard internet practice and should have been implemented in first POC release but it was not). When the user clicks that email, then he/she is considered registered.
- Give the individual user the ability to put personal information and the business user to put business information in addition to personal info.
Step 2: Carbon Offset Inventory (mock) - Create a very simple data structure in offline database to contain carbon offsets inventory.
- Perhaps we can have5-6 simple fields: Certificate Number <Alpha numeric>, Project Name, Project Type, Date Started, End Date, Status= Active, Retired, Withdrawn and then the Units (say we start with 8), Price per Unit = $15 (say), Description.
- Put mock data with 7-8 records with different project types.
- Decrement the counter if the use clicks buy button in next step.
Step 3: User Dashboard (Simple Version): When the new user logs in, who is not affiliated with anyone, then he/she should see a page that has the following tabs:
- Buy Carbon Offsets ß This is default and will provide a search options whose parameters will be provided by Tony. For now just go with a screen that provides 3 fields: Project Type,
- Carbon Packages ß Give three packages or products $10 per month for one year, $20 per month for one year and $50 per year per month. Don’t worry about the exact wording or amount number. Just get basic infrastructure including database access. In the first go, we can wait for tat
- My Carbon Footprint: This is user’s calculated footprint baseline It should stay “Blank” currently.
- Carbon Calculator: We will make this nice but more after one week.
- <Maybe few others TBD later>
- User goes to “Buy Carbon Offset” page, searches per some criteria that is mocked, and it spits out relevant offsets inventory. In front of each line item is a button that says traceability or chain of custody or a some more simpler word. When clicked it displays a very nice report with info relate to the asset: Like who is the project developer, when it started, etc etc. This is dynamically generated. When asset is bought it will say bought etc.
Step 4: Purchase and Pay: User clicks on one product - No matter what they buy , just go to carbon registry and decrement the item purchased and then go to payment processing:
- Let’s add payment gateway to process this payment in US$ or local currency. Thomas was discussing the Steller network. Let’s see if we can use that. I want to make sure that we can use micro payments capability as well.
- Once the payment is processed, let’s keep the transaction info in the history log. Remember for Audit and Traceability purposes we will access this.
- Product is bought
- It goes to user’s transaction history (my orders).
- Reduce inventory once the transaction is successful.
- Offsets should show a link to the transaction we just did.
Step 5: Simple Calculator to calculate carbon offset.
- Assume that an average person has 20 MtCO2e (20 metric tonnes) as their carbon footprint in United States.
- Add a couple of sliding widgets – like num of cars they have (0 to 5), and how often they use public transportation (0% to 100%) and use these numbers to just create some simple new calculated footprint. It does not need to be sophisticated.
Step 6: Do research on open source White Label NFTs and how can we use that to build EBC’s NFT Marketplace. Also do research on “Gas” fees on Ethereum network and the cost. If the cost of NFT minting is say $40 of gas fee etc, and our NFT is $10 then it makes no sense for the NFT owner to pay $40 and g $10. Provide top 2-3 options.
Best
Tony
Recommendations for the Digital Voluntary and Regulated Carbon Markets - 2023 - WE Forum
Recommendations_for_the_Digital_Voluntary_and_Regulated_Carbon_Markets.pdf link
Recommendations_for_the_Digital_Voluntary_and_Regulated_Carbon_Markets.pdf file
1 Challenges facing carbon markets
2 Recommendations for the next generation of digitally native carbon markets
2.1 Improvement of governance
2.2 An accessible marketplace, product definition and clarity
2.3 Applied technology for radical scalability
2.4 Interoperability and transparency across exchanges and platforms
3 The time is now
Carbon Market Challenges
Lack of transparency, integrity and confidence in the monitoring, issuance, sale, retirement and benefits distribution of carbon credits, as well as in third-party certifications
- use of certification standards, Certification bodies, independent - licensed certifier organizations
- online marketplace showing registered parties ( producers, consumers, certifiers, projects, standards orgs ), project status and types, inventory life cycle mgt, order life cycle, delivery life cycle, taxations, my carbon stories, wish lists, private sale lists, histories downloadable, AMM smart pricer, bids and offers
- mobile, web, api access models
- SLT based on trusts, scale
Inaccessibility, inequity and lack of participation in carbon markets by women, local communities, smallholder land stewards, Indigenous people and other vulnerable populations
Insufficient scale to meet climate commitments
Maine Carbon Management Options
Chronicle show 8/15/23
500 M tons of carbon reduction annually
Baxter park - 750 M acres
NEFF - New England Forestry Foundation
Alex Givens
examplary foresty - sustainable harvests
improve carbon reduction by forests by 30% < goal thru forestry improvements
Need economic incentives to maintain forestry << carbon credits
Gilbert Butler Maine Land Conseration
the European Green Deal
https://commission.europa.eu/strategy-and-policy/priorities-2019-2024/european-green-deal_en
Climate change and environmental degradation are an existential threat to Europe and the world. To overcome these challenges, the European Green Deal will transform the EU into a modern, resource-efficient and competitive economy, ensuring:
- no net emissions of greenhouse gases by 2050
- economic growth decoupled from resource use
- no person and no place left behind
The European Green Deal is also our lifeline out of the COVID-19 pandemic. One third of the €1.8 trillion investments from the NextGenerationEU Recovery Plan, and the EU’s seven-year budget will finance the European Green Deal.
Goals for EU Green Deal
but nothing to address unmanaged population growth, a key factor behind environment, social and governance issues and challenges
Potential Challenges
Comprehensive, comparative analysis of multiple energy processes with common standards
Addressing the specific concerns people have on wildlife impacts of wind and solar farms with factual analysis doesn't lead to any useful directions on whether solar and wind farms are a good long-term investment for a community. What I haven't seen in the media or from promoters of solar and wind is COMPREHENSIVE business analysis of the long-term economics for all stakeholders of wind and solar farms compared to other energy options when you look at development, operation, consumption and retirement costs. That data MAY exist but there doesn't appear to be any real comparative standards for evaluating the options. It wouldn't surprise me if today's solar and wind farms become obsolete in 20 years. I'll assume the economic models are betting on a much longer payback. Also tax subsidies for all energy sources distort simple comparative economic analysis.
Poor Management of Electric Programs
Poor Management of Solar Power Programs
https://www.yahoo.com/news/rooftop-solar-industry-could-verge-145455396.html
Poor Management of Wind Power Programs
Climate Action at Scale Report - 2023 - Oliver Wyman
Climate-Action-At Scale-2023-oliver-wyman.pdf. link
Climate-Action-At Scale-2023-oliver-wyman.pdf file
Align Corporate and Climate Interests Summary
| From reducing to building____________________ | Business designs that unlock investment________ | Creating the conditions for success__________ |
|---|---|---|
| In our Getting Real report for Climate Week NYC in 2021, we set out a blueprint for a commercially smart climate transition. In our Getting Going in 2022, we explored how to break through organizational barriers to make the transition happen. In this report, we explore what it takes to scale it up. Our concern was that much of today’s action is limited to the incremental moves that can be made under “business as usual,” while to transition at scale will require something different. We may be at the foot of the S-curve — the period at the beginning of a transition, when progress is typically slow. But can we climb towards the steeper part of the S by doing more of what we are doing today? Or does a greater level of business exposure require a different, more business-integrated approach? Our research with practitioners, both qualitative and quantitative, has validated that concern and illustrated how some leading companies are responding to it. The core idea is simple. As a business, you can’t achieve climate action at scale just by reducing. The investment is unrewarding and unaffordable. But you can by building. The companies making the most progress at scale are building their businesses to thrive in a decarbonizing world. | You can make incremental contributions to | Finding this alignment is not easy. Some companies see natural opportunities, but most need to create the conditions in which self-interest can support climate action at scale. Many companies are betting on future government policies to make their plans affordable. Some are going further, working constructively with governments to achieve a policy environment that will foster climate action at scale. Companies are challenged by the mixed signals from investors: Set and meet ambitious 2030 climate goals, but also grow profits. Some companies are engaging with investors to win support for climate action that inevitably hits profits — relative to today, but not relative to the hit from a future without climate action. The leaders we talked with are clear that they can’t do what’s needed by themselves. They depend heavily on investors and policymakers, as well as suppliers and partners. They can’t go all the way, but they can show the way. It’s then up to investors and policymakers to make that way possible. |
Survey
We conducted 35 interviews with advanced climate practitioners in large corporations from a broad
range of sectors, mostly operating globally and headquartered in Europe and the Americas. The people
we spoke to are responsible for driving the climate transition throughout their organizations. In parallel,
we ran a quantitative survey with climate practitioners from more than 200 corporations active in the
climate transition.
Investments that pay for themselves are easy and done in many cases now.
Bigger investments are challenging given technology gaps ( EV charging infrastructure etc ), inflationary costs, unmeasured value or payback
v>> new climate accounting practice using operations analysis in VCE context with VCRS, FACTUR3DT.io metrics
k>> drivers? regulations, competition, ESG profile, technology break throughs, partnerships in VCE, other?
v>> opportunities to deliver climate action solutions and services to corporations effectively >> vision, renewal vs reduction, bold tactics
These approaches start with a positive vision of
the profitable role that the business seeks to play
in the low-carbon or decarbonizing future. Such a
vision is critical to aligning corporate interests with
climate action at scale.
Businesses achieving climate action at scale also
recognize and pursue both aspects of the creative
destruction needed to realize the vision. It’s not
all about reduction. It’s about renewal — of the
business, the industrial sector it operates in and
the broader economy. They build as well as reduce.
Finally, to progress at pace and scale in an
environment that continues to change unpredictably,
they use bold tactics to move ahead without
committing themselves to unknown futures.
VCE view: what are the potential rewards for action?
external opportunities in the VCE
finding the business rewards that
allow them to deploy resources at scale.
creative change mindset for internal operations
risk and uncertainty,
about what makes a business case, and about the
capabilities that will matter in the future.
Ball Co Plan Carbon Mgt Supply Chain Use Case
Maersk Shipping Carbon Mgt Use Case
BHP Carbon Mgt in Energy Supply Chain Use Case
Improving authentication for EBC MVP applications
To meet an unrealistic MVP deadline from the client, we created 2 separate services: one for users trading, one for approvers
The plan was to only provide a Web UI for user trading, not for approver services.
Approvals of accounts and devices could be done through the database, not a Web UI.
As the client changed the requirements to add a Web UI for approvals, we made the decision to create a second Web app with a matching Web service to cut time and costs.
IF we had more time, funds, a long-term design would use a different model to support different user types and functional authorization
A plan to consolidate the existing MVP solution into a single app and integrated user database
- Consolidate the trade and approver applications into one application
- Change the trade and approver services to use a single authentication token
- Change the account and approver tables to have the SAME identity for any user that is in both tables
Production architecture is out of scope on budget, time now
- Create a new registration solution that incorporates the existing approver table functions
- Create a new authentication service that supports the added approver functions
- Extend the authorization model to support specific RBAC - role based access control - beyond the base roles of user, approver
- Extend the authorization model to support data contexts beyond the limited model in the MVP
MVP2 Challenges
- Client planning gaps for MVP2
- client disappears for 10 weeks to create a "capabilities" specification
- client says it will only take 2 weeks to implement because they are experts on the web technologies used
- client spec is not a design and has many logical, process and data gaps to be filled ( BUT "design not needed" )
- client thinks coding and design can start day 1 not understanding an Agile process has design before coding
- Our team on EBC MVP2
- had 2 people from the prior EBC effort. One was an excellent developer.
- 6 new people added, only 1 from Paramount
- QA person can only manually test UIs, no APIs, no data analysis
- Documentation person didn't have significant role since design had run concurrent to development on the SAME stories
- 2 senior UI developers really are junior level only
- The new UX designer is first class
- HR function is weak
- high pressure, short-term projects are not the place to "train" new teams
- Factory approach to software solutions missing
- Need open standards based platform, technology stacks
- Improve solution value, flexibility, portability avoiding custom cloud services in cloud environments
- Architect solutions as assemblies of common component services ( data services, content services, security services, visualization services, management services, IAM services, JEPL event process services, etc )
- factory pays increasing dividends over time as the services stack value grows to build applications faster, flexibility with better quality over time
- replace large developer teams with fewer, better paid senior developers that can build factory services and deliver solutions on the factory
- compare Feathers, Grails, JHipster on full stack automation
- Carbon Offset Solution Values
- carbon offsets are a payment ( by carbon ton ) from a carbon emitter to a carbon reducer who reduces CO2 output elsewhere ( eg a Tree farm, Solar farm, Wind farm etc)
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carbon_offset
- https://www.offsetguide.org/understanding-carbon-offsets/what-is-a-carbon-offset/
- https://www.treehugger.com/best-carbon-offset-programs-5076458
- terrapass sells carbon offsets retail at about $10 per ton. Retailers offer monthly subscriptions based on your carbon footprint.
- mm
- more
Candidate Solutions
ESG, Blockchain and Carbon Management - a Strategy
Carbon accounting concepts and solutions
Carbon Credit Price Per Ton in 2023 (and Every Other Year)
how much carbon does an acre of forest remove in a year
When you run the number, it turns out that one acre of forest absorbs about 2.5 tons of CO2 per year.
What is ReFi — The intersection of crypto and climate
https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/what-refi-intersection-crypto-climate-mitchell-board/
Regenerative Finance (ReFi) is a tool to solve systemic problems, such as climate change. Under this system, a positive impact is no longer a by-product of return on capital. Instead, the goal becomes positive change with financial return circulating amongst the community. It supports a shift from an economy that is extractive to one that is regenerative.
Carbon Markets on Web3 - Toucan
At the heart of ReFi today sits carbon markets. These opaque markets are underpinned by carbon credits — a form of token that represents 1MT CO2 (equivalent). Today, carbon credits are traded between
- Producers such as environmental developers who secure the land and resources to create carbon sinks e.g. a forest
- Customers such as large multinational corporations who need to offset their emissions.
Carbon credits are typically transacted via a labyrinth of intermediaries including brokers, traders and/or consultants.
One of the major problems of carbon markets is the potential for fraud or double-counting of credits. By building ReFi on the blockchain a new form of transparency is introduced that would eliminate the possibility of the same credit being counted twice. On-chain carbon credits are traceable and immutable meaning that no two people are able to claim the same credit twice. Burning (or retiring) on-chain credits ensures that they cannot be used again. One company enabling carbon on-chain is Toucan Protocol.
Toucan has built a Carbon Bridge that allows anybody to bring their carbon credits on-chain in a tokenized form. Toucan has been so successful since its launch that more than 21 million carbon offsets, representing over 25% of all Verra offsets sold over the last six months, have been bridged onto the blockchain and retired on the Verra registry.
Not only is Toucan providing improved traceability and transparency but it also provides an avenue for individuals to participate in carbon markets. By using blockchain technology ReFi increases access for individuals and drives a new form of demand into climate solutions.
Regen Marketplace
https://guides.regen.network/guides/regen-marketplace/bridging/regen-ledger-to-polygon
Bridging - move carbon credits from Polygon / Toucan to Regen marketplace and vice versa
https://app.regen.network/projects/1
VCU - Verifiable Carbon Units
https://app.regen.network/credit-classes/C01
This credit class provides a vehicle for nature based Verified Carbon Units (VCUs) to enter the blockchain space via issuance on Regen Ledger. It can be used by project developers, credit brokers, and other stakeholders interested in digitizing carbon credits issued by the VCS program to make them available in the emerging world of decentralized finance.
blockchain for carbon credits concept
nature-based-solutions. These can be generally grouped into two categories — Carbon Emission Avoidance or Carbon Removal. Although not a completely exhaustive list, here are some of the most common NBS solutions in the space:
- Reforestation — these additionality credits are generated from activities that involve planting trees in an area where the forest had previously been cleared or destroyed. These projects are either terrestrial (land-based), or wetland (marine or freshwater), such as mangrove restoration projects.
- Afforestation — generated from activities that involve planting trees in areas where there was no forest previously.
- Agroforestry — generated from activities that involve the integration of trees into agricultural landscapes, such as intercropping, alley cropping, and silvopastoral systems.
- Peatland — generated from activities that involve the protection and restoration of peatlands, which are among the most carbon-rich ecosystems in the world.
- Conservation — generated from activities that involve the protection of carbon-rich ecosystems, such as rainforests, savannas, and grasslands.
- Avoided Deforestation — generally refers to the conservation of any forest area that would have otherwise been destroyed for commercial purposes.
key players in the ReFi industry today.
Flowcarbon — Flowcarbon operates at the intersection of carbon and new technology in order to protect earth’s natural carbon sinks and scale quality carbon reduction and removal projects, on-chain
Toucan — Toucan’s primary mission is to create public infrastructure for carbon markets running on open blockchains
Senken — a gateway to buy, retire, and sell carbon credits on chain in a transparent and trackable manner
Regen Network — ecological assets for the ReFi economy: Regen bridges between real life ecological impact and the incentives that web3 finance provides.
Moss — Using tokenization of specific carbon credits as well as NFTs, the MOSS MCO2 token represents tokenized carbon credits from projects directly working to prevent deforestation and protect the Amazon rainforest.
dMRV: The Foundation of Carbon
We’ve talked a lot about carbon credits, carbon markets, and our friends in the ReFi space who are using these mechanisms to create groundbreaking, digitized environmental solutions. But the pot is still boiling: HOW are we confirming that all the carbon being traded, exchanged, accredited, retired, and showing up on marketplaces, is actually legitimate? That 1 tonne of carbon really is being sequestered and that tonne of carbon is represented by a token? Enter digital Measurement, Reporting, and Verification (dMRV), and by extension, Open Forest Protocol.
MRV, Measurement, Reporting, and Verification, is a pillar of legitimate carbon, on or off chain. It is the foundation for all manner of climate mitigation efforts, from energy reduction to reforestation. It is the integral step in proving an intended impact has been achieved. As a framework, MRV is essentially how you take real world carbon removal activity data, and convert it into a tradable asset (the credit). MRV is the backbone of the carbon market.
Within the context of forest monitoring, MRV involves three interconnected procedures:
- Direct Measurement of data (such as tree height, diameter, species, on-site photos, etc.).
- Standardized data Reporting by compilation into an inventory.
- Verification of reported data to ensure reliability and validity.
So far, with legacy systems, MRV has been siloed, expensive, opaque, and often inaccessible by the projects and initiatives on the ground. It has seen only partial attempts at digitization and as a result is a clearly identified bottleneck between the market’s demand signals and the capacity for the market to respond with additional supply. The chain of command can be complicated and difficult to navigate — to read more on the ins and outs, head over to our MRV piece.
Due to a lack of transparency, MRV is prone to dishonesty which has eroded trust in the carbon financing system as a whole. It’s time for a ground-up rethinking and application of appropriate technologies to create a better system.
Blockchain technology — an immutable, globally accessible ledger of project data — ensures a transition to an on-chain carbon management system and market that is the first of its kind in the world, connecting supply and demand in a way that surpasses that of any current industry. .
Toucan - scale the impact of planet-positive projects by turning carbon credits into tokens with Toucan's infrastructure
Tokenized carbon allows for both large and small buyers to engage with carbon, with lower barriers to entry and more transparency.
Increase the value of your carbon credits
Access new sales channels and increase the value and transparency of your carbon projects by bringing them on-chain into the Open Climate Registry
Toucan Web app
https://app.toucan.earth/overview
https://github.com/ToucanProtocol
https://docs.toucan.earth/toucan/introduction/readme
https://developer.toucan.earth/
Carbon Bridge to other chains
Our Carbon Bridge allows owners of carbon credits from verified sources to link each one to a unique digital token called a TCO2. These are stored in a smart contract on a blockchain database called the Open Climate Registry.
Carbon SDK + API
Help us scale climate solutions by using our developer toolset to build tokenized carbon into your next project.
Carbon Pools
Carbon Pools hold similar carbon tokens, which back liquid carbon reference tokens like NCT. These can be traded on exchanges and used in products built on the Toucan Protocol.
Carbon Retirements
Offset emissions by purchasing and retiring carbon from specific projects and vintages - using our Open Climate Registry and retirement functionality.
Value opportunities for carbon
Earn interest on carbon
Access new ways of turning carbon credits into productive, yield-bearing assets.
Green NFTs
Integrate carbon with your next NFT project for planet-positive creations.
Carbon as a digital asset
Diversify treasury or portfolio holdings with tokenized real-world carbon credits.
What is ReFi — The intersection of crypto and climate
https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/what-refi-intersection-crypto-climate-mitchell-board/
carbon accounting references
Towards Ontology and Blockchain Based Measurement, Reporting, and Verification For Climate Action - SSRN-id3717389.pdf
https://wiki.hyperledger.org/display/CASIG/Voluntary+Carbon+Offsets+Directory+Research+Project
References
- Securing Climate Benefit: A Guide to Using Carbon Offsets
- Voluntary Ecological Markets Overview by IWA - this document is really about carbon offsets despite its title.
- EDF Trends in Voluntary Carbon Offsets Market
- These Countries have Prices on Carbon. Are they working? (NY Times)
- Taskforce for Scaling Voluntary Carbon Markets Final Report
- Microsoft Carbon Removal - Lessons from an Early Corporate Purchase
- Microsoft Criteria for high-quality carbon dioxide removal
Ratings and Criticisms of Carbon Offsets
A buyer’s guide to soil carbon offsets - Carbon Plan
- BeZero Carbon Ratings Methodology
- The World Needs Better Climate Pledges
- Comments on the Initial Recommendations of the Taskforce on Scaling Voluntary Carbon Markets (TSVCM) from Berkeley Carbon Trading Project and affiliated groups
- Startup That Rates Carbon Offsets Finds Almost Half Fall Short
- Top Airlines’ Promises to Offset Flights Rely on Phantom Credits
- NPR Reporting on Forest Carbon Credits Gets It Wrong in 5 Ways
- Carbon Direct Commentary on Release of the Voluntary Offsets Database
- How Additional is the Clean Development Mechanism
https://wiki.hyperledger.org/display/CASIG/Governance+Research+for+Climate+Action
In a typical climate ecosystem, such as the carbon credits market or climate investing, there are these stakeholders:
- sellers or issuers
- buyers
- intermediaries - transaction services
- gatekeepers - standards organizations, ratings agencies
- other service providers - data services, consultants
Sample carbon accounting app model
https://github.com/opentaps/blockchain-carbon-accounting/blob/main/open-offsets-directory/README.md
The Carbon Offset Marketplace - reference model
Designing, implementing and operating carbon offset projects requires the involvement of a number of parties, stakeholders and authorities. Although the parties involved differ from project to project, some general categories and types of market players can be defined as follows.
Project Owners
The operator and owner of the physical project installation where the emission reduction project takes place. An owner can be any private person, company or other organization.
Project Developers
A person or organization with the intention to develop an emission reduction project. This could be the project owner, a consultant or specialized services provider.
Project Funders
Banks, private equity firms, private investors, non-profit organizations and other organizations may lend or invest equity to fund a project. Some offset program standards have rules as to what kind of funding, aside from offset revenue, is acceptable for an offset project.
Stakeholders
Individuals and organizations that are directly or indirectly affected by the emission reduction project. Stakeholders include the parties interested in developing a specific project (e.g., owner, developer, funder), parties affected by the project (e.g., local population, host community, environmental and human rights advocates) and national and international authorities.
Third Party Auditors – Validators and Verifiers
Almost all offset programs require a third-party auditor to validate and verify a project’s baseline and its projected and achieved emission reductions. Under CDM, the auditors are called Designated Operational Entities (DOEs). To minimize conflicts of interest, the CDM does not allow the validating DOE to also conduct project verification. Most offset programs also have processes for accrediting their third party auditors before they are approved to conduct validation and verification activities.
Standards Organizations
In the absence of national or international legislation, standard organizations define a set of rules and criteria for voluntary emission reduction credits.
Brokers and Exchanges
In the offset credit wholesale market, emission offset buyers and sellers can have transactions facilitated by brokers or exchanges. Exchanges are usually preferred for frequent trades or large volumes of products with standardized contracts or products, while brokers typically arrange transactions for non-standardized products, occasional trades, and small volumes.
Traders
Professional emission reduction traders purchase and sell emission reductions by taking advantage of market price distortions and arbitrage possibilities.
Offset Providers
Offset providers act as aggregators and retailers between project developers and buyers. They provide a convenient way for consumers and businesses to access offset credits from a portfolio of projects.
Final Buyers or End-Users
Individuals and organizations purchase carbon offsets to counter-balance GHG emissions. Therefore, the final buyer has no interest in reselling the offset but will prompt the retirement of the carbon offset credit
Carbon Value of a Tree Farm
How much Co2 do trees absorb?
We had a reader reach out to us with a question I had never really thought about. He asked, “How much CO2 do trees absorb?”. As the answer took some time to research and is a little long-winded, I thought I had better create a post for anyone else wanting to know.
When discussing CO2 absorption by trees, it’s important to remember that elemental carbon locked within the tree differs from carbon dioxide absorbed from the atmosphere. We should note that not all trees absorb the same amount of CO2.
Project Management Challenges
7/13/21 Next Steps
We have wrapped Sprint 1 new features.
We are doing minor support, fixes.
Tony wants a "next sprint" that includes:
Note to Pramod
Sprints for Carbon Mgt App
Sprint 5 Retro
retro.jim>
bad > need better coverage between stories in epics and the actual work getting done
bad > need better job on matching stories to epics every time
bad > need better job of finding the matching story list for an epic when we do customer reviews ( as Amir has been doing )
bad > need better indication of blocked items ( eg a dependency on Word press server environment etc )
bad > need better backlog grooming prior to Sprints ( Jim, Shilpa )
bad > took too long to resolve the blockchain usage model for this app ( vs trading app ) ( Tony, Jim )
good > responsive to customer in our weekly status review meetings
good > work getting done in specific instances by developers
QA environment not setup for Chain API
Frontend and api apps are setup in QA correctly
No AWS environment has been setup for the Chain API in QA
Strategy - minimum work to demo Fabric contracts
Option 1 - test locally to DEV environment on Chain API
create local version of ebc-v2-api that points to Mongo ebc_dev_v2 database
write account and jobQ records there
existing Chain api in DEV will process
view results in Mongo DEV and couchDB DEV
Option 2 - create Fabric environment in QA
Option 3 - reconfigure Fabric DEV environment to be Fabric QA environment
Carbon Offset Production Using Seaweed feed for Cows
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/seaweed-methane-emissions-cows-gas-climate-change/
Managing carbon effectively for ESG
https://www.globalcarbonesg.com/
Learn how we combine carbon sensors, IoT, and Blockchain to help you baseline and manage your carbon footprint.
IBM puts carbon certifications on blockchain
Revolutionizing renewable energy certificate markets with tokenization.pdf
enterprises purchase Renewable Energy Certificates (REC) which represent 1MWh of zero-carbon electricity generated by another entity. The seller of REC could be outside the region or country the enterprise is from. The enterprises then use the RECs to offset their carbon footprint and be compliant with regulations on carbon emissions and green standards.
Companies are looking to newer solutions to capture, analyze and report Environmental Sustainability Goals (ESG) information and reduce their environmental impact. A decentralized and immutable blockchain network, which leverages enhanced characteristics of distributed ledger technology (DLT) can greatly increase the adoption of energy certificates and ensure consumption closely matches the generation.
cumbersome carbon accounting process becomes simplified with significant cost savings, as smart metering and automations are introduced.
exchange of different amounts of energy and granularity of energy certificates. For example, energy certificates can be traded in smaller program time units (PTUs), such as the case of hourly certificates, becoming more in cadence with clearing and settlement
commercial-scale blue hydrogen, derived from natural gas and carbon capture and storage (CCS) and green hydrogen, produced from renewables-based electrolysis processes. This has led to surge in hydrogen project announcements working in conjunction with both the gas and renewable sectors. The energy generation using hydrogen and other mixed sources have some CO2 emission associated and needs to be captured in the certificates.
wide variety of implementations for tokenizing energy certificates, coupled with the fact that they are often at an infancy stage, call out for defining industry standards towards interoperability between networks in different geographical regions across the globe.
self-funding ecosystems are leveraging Ethereum-based (ERC-20) solutions by introducing a dual layer of tokenization. The purpose for public platforms of supporting two layers of tokenization is to provide end-users access to use their platform and contribute to corporate revenues and create exchangeable tokens encapsulating energy certificates.
P2P energy trading
A similar system is being developed by Power Ledger. With its own unique trade matching algorithms, prosumers and consumers can transact available power equitably, without favoring any of the participants. Other characteristics of this platform include pegging of native tokens to a local unit of currency and aggregation of individual meters in a single transaction. The trading group can be configured by either their application host or Power Ledger. WePower also offers an alternative solution on exchanging energy certificates via its native WPR token and auctions. WePower launched a financial derivative product, called Contract for Difference, to mitigate risk in corporate power purchasing agreements (PPAs).
ESG reporting on carbon
As organizations are by now committed to contribute to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG), there is a need for an elegant solution which enables them to calculate carbon footprint and assist in creating their ESG reporting.
Tokenize energy certificates and reporting
solution (enerT) to tokenize energy certificates using Hyperledger Fabric and Tokens-SDK. Tokenization of energy certificates in a DLT platform can offer an intelligent solution with regards to full disclosure certification of energy. In addition to the amount of energy generated by mixed sources, tokens created in the network could also store other useful characteristic such as CO2 emissions in the energy supply chain.
A tokenized energy marketplace would offer a wide range of trusted certificates in terms of energy types and origin. Such a network would allow suppliers and consumers to trade energy certificates efficiently and inexpensively. A tokenized certification unit would be like what the container did for the shipping industry.
Google Maps GPS API
https://www.businessinsider.com/how-to-find-coordinates-on-google-maps
Currency Codes and Conversion Rates
currencyCodes
currencyConversionRates
https://www.federalreserve.gov/datadownload/Choose.aspx?rel=H10
https://www.bis.org/statistics/xrusd.htm
http://www.portfolioslicer.com/data/file-currency-conversion.html
Meetings
EBC DER trading POC schedule
Jan 5 accounts app works
demo accounts to database again
demo account, device from script to ledger
a> need to move front-end logic to feathers client
Jan 7 approver app works
issue> write account from api to ledger
a> new cd pipeline for approver app
Jan 11 devices in app works
device approvals work
Jan 14 write accounts, devices from api to ledger
a> api wrapper service for ledger accounts, devices
a> demo transactionID on mongo and from Explorer on ledger
i> individual keys for accounts, devices not included now
end Sprint 1
Jan 14 Sprint 2 begins
energy load demo ( Jim )
a> add menu option, api call to load function
Sprint 2 demo
Jan 18 Sprint 3 - offers
review offers UI, api
- create, edit, cancel offer
i> do we need the 19th for this review ??
Jan 25 Sprint 4 - bids
review bids UI, api
- create, edit, cancel bid
i> do we need the 26th for this review ??
Jan 26 Sprint 5 - trades begins
membership certs for accounts
Step-by-step guide for Example
sample code block