Forests, where oxygen, the basic source of life, is produced, are among the most important ecosystems in the world. Three centuries ago, more than half of all habitable land in the world was covered by forests.Today, forests cover only 31% of global land area and only half of it remains unscathed. The main drivers of forest loss are:
-
agricultural expansion,
-
mining applications,
-
excessive wood production,
-
increasing fossil fuel demand…
Deforestation; These are the underlying reasons for many of the challenges we face today, such as climate change, drought, extreme weather events, pollution, drought, poverty and the spread of diseases. When we look one step further back, we see that the main reason behind deforestation is the linear economic model. It is obvious that it is. With this model, natural resources are processed and transformed into products, and these products are consumed and disposed of. But how sustainable is this model?
Restorative finance, ReFi, uses money as a tool to solve systemic problems by changing the underlying narrative of our current economic model . ReFi, which advocates using capital to ensure that social and environmental systems are healthy and fair, believes in the necessity of an economic system that focuses on repair to solve our ecosystem crises such as the planetary climate crisis, biodiversity loss, and inequalities between countries and people.
We need to take both collective and individual measures to control the climate crisis, a warming planet and increasing greenhouse gas emissions. While action at the government and corporate level is required to scale change, individuals can also take some steps. But what can we do about emissions from activities for which climate-friendly alternatives are not yet widely available, such as air travel? Carbon offsets may be the answer.
Supporting sustainable environmental projects by carbon offset is one of the easiest and most effective ways that individuals and sectors where climate-friendly alternatives are not common can choose to combat the climate crisis.
What is Carbon Footprint?
Carbon footprint is the sum of the direct or indirect emissions produced by a person or organization’s activities.
The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and many other websites have free carbon footprint calculators. You too can use these calculators to calculate your carbon footprint!
What is Carbon Offset?
It is a mechanism that compensates for the carbon emissions caused by preventing them from occurring elsewhere. Carbon offset also helps contribute to the Sustainable Development Goals defined by the UN, such as lower energy consumption and improved air and water quality.
Carbon offset projects are credits purchased from projects designed to reduce emissions of planet-warming greenhouse gases. By purchasing these credits, the purchaser supports actions that increase the sequestration of carbon dioxide in long-lived carbon reservoirs such as trees, soils and wetlands, or reduce greenhouse gas emissions from sources such as landfills, farms and coal mines.
Organizations and individuals can carbon offset voluntarily or to comply with regulations.
The idea is simple: carbon offsets are a unit of measurement that certifies that a particular action or project removes the equivalent of one metric tonne of CO2, and one carbon credit is equal to one tonne of carbon dioxide. The math is simple in theory, but we still have a way to go to calculate accurately and apply it to the real world.
Can Carbon Offset Fight the Climate Crisis?
Carbon offset has an important role to play in stopping climate change, but it is only one of many climate solutions needed to save the climate. We should prioritize more effective approaches in the bigger picture, such as reducing, eliminating and reversing the emissions of harmful gases, rather than a system where emissions of harmful gases still occur but are balanced. Carbon Offset Examples:
-
Forestry: tree planting projects
-
Agriculture: innovative farming techniques
-
Aviation: approaches to optimize flight paths with AI
-
Renewable Energy: projects that aim to replace fossil fuel use with clean, renewable energy, such as produced from a wind farm
-
Water Management: innovations in the physical and chemical treatment of contaminated water
-
Energy Efficiency: actions to increase infrastructure efficiency
-
Impact Tokens: Projects using blockchain technology for positive environmental and social impact
-
Carbon NFTs: turning carbon offset into NFT
Carbon Offset ve ReFi:
With the rapid rise of blockchain technology and the increasing demand of users, green investments are now becoming suitable for blockchain. Planet-minded actions are now possible with various protocols and impact tokens.
In recent years, we have seen the emergence of a new carbon market based on the tokenization of voluntary carbon credits. This system is a new, decentralized approach to growing the carbon market and has seen very rapid growth since its inception. The reasons for this growth are clear: Anyone with access to the cryptocurrency world can instantly buy and sell tokenized carbon credits without opening a new account or needing additional KYC checks. Therefore, considering the increasing number of crypto users, the carbon credit consumer market has high growth potential.
Blockchain could theoretically help to calculate how much carbon the offset would remove by linking offsets to blockchain-based cryptocurrencies or tokens, and then verifying that carbon has been removed. While tokens help incentivize verification, tokenizing offset projects can also ensure accurate measurement.
Blockchain Project Examples:
-
Toucan Protocol: The goal of the Toucan Protocol is to convert CO2 certificates for voluntary carbon offsets from trusted sources into corresponding tokens on the Polygon blockchain. It plans to make the carbon market more accessible and attractive with Blockchain.
-
MOSS: MOSS, which has roots in South America and devotes itself to the protection of the Amazon rainforest, draws attention with its MCO2 token and Amazon Forest NFT tools.
-
Menthol Protocol: The first multi-chain decentralized sustainability protocol that offsets the emissions of users or dApp transactions from around the world with verified renewable energy and carbon credits.
-
KlimaDAO: KlimaDAO, which declares itself as a “black hole for CO2”, is a Decentralized Autonomous Organization built on the more energy efficient Polygon network.
Why is it important to find the right offset program and what should be taken into consideration for this?
To benefit the planet, a carbon offset project must have a real impact on atmospheric emissions. So in the project:
-
Comply with a clearly defined set of standardized conditions, often called a “protocol,” that determine what types of projects are eligible and how greenhouse gas emission reductions will be measured.
-
Compliance with these requirements may be verified by an independent third party,
-
The project must be completely transparent in its implementation and reporting.
ReFi Türkiye Podcast 🎧️
The 6th episode of our podcast series, which we conducted with the pioneers who think and build on Web3, within the scope of the ReFi Turkey program, is online!
You can listen to the episodes about the intersection of web technologies and the impact ecosystem on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Soundcloud and Spreaker. You can also buy NFTs that we prepared specifically for podcast episodes with the code you will hear in the episodes!
In the 6th episode, we host Han Tüzün, a key player in the global Web3 ecosystem, who is making advancements and investments in the field under the slogan “Building the Inevitable Future.” In this episode, we thoroughly discuss his work and the concept of ReFi. You can listen to the episode here and read the episode notes here.
Movie Recommendation
The Blockchain and Us is a documentary about Blockchain, the underlying technology of Bitcoin, directed by Manuel Stagars. It focuses on what financial technology will be like in the future, with interviews with experts in the finance and technology sectors.