The University of Cambridge is building a carbon credit marketplace on Tezos blockchain that will support reforestation projects to preserve biodiversity.
A carbon credit is a permit that allows the company that holds it to emit a certain amount of carbon dioxide or other greenhouse gases.
World leaders at the recent COP26 global climate conference in pledged to stop deforestation by the end of 2030, but there are deep challenges remaining about how to fund and verify progress towards this goal.
To improve funding techniques for nature-based solutions (NbS) that help reach the COP26 goals, the Cambridge Centre for Carbon Credits (4C) will use a combination of AI and satellite sensing to build a decentralized marketplace for verifiable carbon credits.
The decentralized marketplace will allow purchasers of carbon credits to confidently and directly fund trusted nature-based projects that ties together corporate funders to conservationists via automated and transparent global oracles.
Dr Anil Madhavapeddy, Director Cambridge Centre for Carbon Credits, said:
“Current accreditation systems that measure and report the value of carbon and related benefits like biodiversity conservation and poverty reduction rendered by NbS are costly, slow and inaccurate.
These systems have undermined trust in NbS carbon credits. What is needed is a decentralised marketplace where purchasers of carbon credits can confidently and directly fund trusted nature-based projects. And that’s the gap the Centre is aiming to fill.”
The university selected Tezos blockchain for building this marketplace due to its low energy consumption which is in line with the Centre’s vision to support a sustainable future through technology.
Additionally, Tezos’ decentralized nature and battle proven and functional tech, combined with the ability to evolve in a swift and forkless manner, are qualities that do not remain unnoticed.