Can satellites and blockchain technology solve the woes of the beleaguered carbon market? Although challenges abound, there’s potential ahead, according to a new report. Published as a collaboration between Earth imaging company Planet, carbon credit company Carbify, and the think tank European Carbon Offset Tokenization Association (ECOTA), the report delves into how the two technologies could potentially help address the issues of transparency and accountability that pervade the carbon market. “The sustainability and carbon market has a very deep-rooted integrity problem,” Maximilian Rösgen, communications officer at ECOTA and one of the authors of the report, told Mongabay in a video interview. “We wanted to explore how we can use technologies to make it more transparent and to scale it as per institutional demand.” Satellites have long been used to monitor and estimate environmental degradation in real time. High-resolution satellite imagery has helped scientists, conservationists and authorities identify deforestation, detect illegal roads, and keep track of wildlife in various ecosystems. Blockchain technology, on the other hand, has found applications in fields like finance and retail. Owing to its immutable nature, data stored on blockchain can’t be altered or tampered with. To date, however, it has found limited use in environmental monitoring. Together, though, the two technologies could be put to good use, according to the report. While satellites could continuously monitor changes in forest cover at regular frequencies, people can access alerts and other information on smart contracts — agreements signed and stored on the blockchain and executed automatically when the…This article was originally published on Mongabay
The post Blockchain as a carbon market fix: Interview with William ten Zijthoff, Flávia De Souza Mendes & Maximilian Rösgen first appeared on EnviroLink Network.