IBM and Energy-Blockchain Labs have launched the world’s first blockchain-based carbon credit management platform based on the open source, openly governed by Hyperledger Fabric, a blockchain technology that is intended as a foundation for developing blockchain applications or solutions.
In use by the carbon asset market in China, the platform allows businesses to generate carbon assets more efficiently, helping to build a low-carbon, sustainable future in China. Carbon asset development, also known as Carbon Emission Reduction (CER) quota issuing, is one popular way of encouraging businesses to decrease emissions and use low carbon emission technology.
“It is estimated that the platform will significantly shorten the carbon assets development cycle and reduce the cost of carbon assets development by 20 to 30 percent, enabling cost-effective development of a large number of carbon assets,” said Cao Yin, Chief Strategy Officer of Energy-Blockchain Labs. “Blockchain technology is expected to become an important means for effective control of carbon emissions, which is of great significance to China, the world’s largest source of carbon emissions.”
The two companies completed a proof of concept in late 2016 and a beta version of the carbon asset management platform on blockchain will be released in May. Energy-Blockchain Labs and IBM intend to commercially offer this platform later this year, keeping pace with China’s unified national carbon market opening.
“Energy-Blockchain Labs is committed to being the global leader in digitalized green assets and we expect to improve the efficiency of the carbon market and green finance market,” said Lin Le, CEO of Energy-Blockchain Labs. “We are delighted to be working with IBM on carbon reduction. We also expect to work with more partners to tackle climate change.”
Blockchain technology offers a solution to many of the problems facing the carbon market. Digital collaboration across organizations combined with smart contracts will be designed to greatly improve efficiency of carbon assets development and management. Security-rich and immutable distributed ledger technology increases the credibility of the carbon emission reduction market. Blockchain technology also provides transparency and auditability which help stakeholders address regulatory requirements.
“As an important signatory of the Paris Agreement, China must assume its responsibility for global climate governance and continue to fulfill its pre-2020 climate change action targets and build a standard nationwide carbon market,” said Li Junfeng, Director of China’s National Climate Change Strategy Research and International Cooperation Center (NCSC). “We must work to limit high energy consumption and high emission industries, encourage clean energy development and further promote energy saving and emission reduction. These tasks are not only necessary for China’s own sustainable development, but for the welfare of the entire human family.”
“The use of blockchain technology in carbon emission reduction by IBM and Energy-Blockchain Labs is an important step forward,” said Chen Liming, Chairman of the IBM Greater China Group. “It is another way IBM is helping Chinese businesses use technology to build a cooperative, fair and reasonable global climate change governance mechanism. As a founding member of the Linux Foundation Hyperledger Project, IBM is committed to providing more innovative enterprise-level blockchain technology and helping Chinese enterprises build blockchain ecosystems.”
IBM is the leader in secure open-source blockchain solutions built for the enterprise. As an early member of the Linux Foundation’s Hyperledger Project, IBM is dedicated to supporting the development of openly-governed blockchains. IBM has worked with more than 400 clients across financial services, supply chains, IoT, risk management, digital rights management and healthcare to implement blockchain applications delivered via the IBM Cloud.
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Published Apr 4, 2017 6am EDT / 3am PDT / 11am BST / 12pm CEST