In a Webinar on Wednesday in New York, the international non-governmental organization (NGO) the World Economic Forum announced the creation of a new Crypto Sustainability Coalition with 30 partners at the convergence of sustainable development and web3, crypto, and blockchain technology.
With growing concern over blockchain technology’s environmental effect, the World Economic Forum is announcing new public-private cooperation to use web3 technologies to better promote favorable climate outcomes.
During a panel discussion in the United States on Wednesday, the non-governmental organization with headquarters in Switzerland unveiled the Crypto Sustainability Coalition, a group of 30 partners working at the nexus of sustainable development, web3, cryptocurrency, and blockchain technology.
The collaboration, which consists of multidisciplinary members ranging from the blockchain platform Solana to sustainability-focused charities like Climate Collective to the University of Lisbon, wants to encourage research and development, exchange best practices, and influence policy.
With the Ethereum Merge, which decreased the energy usage of the second-largest blockchain, cryptocurrency technology recently made progress toward sustainability. The industry as a whole continues to be energy-intensive. According to the Digiconomist Bitcoin Energy Usage Index, Bitcoin, the most valuable cryptocurrency by market capitalization, has a yearly carbon footprint that is equal to that of Greece and energy consumption that is equivalent to that of the United Arab Emirates.
The coalition’s main task will be to examine the energy and material consumption of the cryptocurrency sector in order to comprehend its effects on the environment and the climate. The organization does, however, also want to aggressively look into how web3 may assist nations in achieving reduced carbon emission objectives.
Josh Knauer, the co-founder of ReSeed Carbon Assets and co-chair of the coalition’s working group on carbon credits, believes that blockchain technologies in particular are ideally suited to serve as a home for carbon credit markets.
According to the company’s website, a carbon protection credit buyer may guarantee ownership of the carbon that has been stored and safeguarded using satellite images and artificial intelligence, with prices varying on a free and decentralized market.
According to Knauer, the blockchain is inclusive and makes carbon markets accessible to even the tiniest farmers, foresters, and Indigenous groups in the globe. This technology, he said, “can help in creating coordination, transparency, and efficiency in systems, and can provide more insight and traceability when it comes to action, commitments, and investments,” adding that it helps make sure the farmers themselves are fairly compensated and benefit as the price for carbon rises.
The industry requires a lot of energy to conduct transactions, hence the Crypto Sustainability Coalition also advocates energy-efficient cryptocurrency mining methods. According to Lucia Gallardo, founder and CEO of EmergeFrance, miners could only be able to function during off-peak energy times when fewer other sources are drawing the electricity from the electrical grid because of their decentralized and adaptive nature.
Moreover, according to Gallardo, the heat waste from cryptocurrency mining equipment may be recovered and provide utilities and investors wanting to build microgrids for renewable energy with a new business model.
Accenture, a provider of information technology services, Ripple Labs, Inc., which creates the Ripple payment system and exchange network, and Rainforest Partnership, an environmental nonprofit, are some of the coalition’s other important partners. The group will participate in the World Economic Forum’s grant-funded Crypto Impact and Sustainability Accelerator (CISA), which was established at the beginning of this year to promote research into the environmental, social, and governance (ESG) effects of crypto technology.
