Over 65% of the CO2 generated over the last 50 years has been generated by 10% of the world’s population. The creation of CO2 gases in our atmosphere has fueled the industrial revolution for the western world. Now as the rest of the globe looks to catch up the ramifications of duplicating that CO2 footprint to fuel their success would destroy the planet for all of us. The dilemma is how do we deny 90% of the world the same benefit enjoyed by the prosperous 10%.
The problem is exacerbated by geopolitical interests that prevent the common solution to this global problem. Currencies vary widely in their stability, corruption runs rampant in developing countries energy is needed to fuel development. The options for generating power at a scale sufficient to fuel economic growth are limited and take a long time to plan and build. Even when the energy-generating resources are built the capital to continue to fuel them is difficult for developing countries to keep up with. As technology advances allow for the large-scale deployment of renewable assets with fuel sources that are free such as solar, wind, and geothermal, we have the ability to address these issues. The difficulty is that with these renewable assets it is often like paying for your cell phone bill for the next 7 years upfront to provide for 20 years of service. If they choose to go with coal or other fossil fuels the governments that provide those fuels get together to help these countries fund those assets as a way to participate in their growth through the long-term supply of the fuel needed to run them. There needs to be a way to allow these developing countries to have access to the capital to allow them to make investments in renewable, non-CO2 producing assets.
Investment in renewable assets across borders is difficult. Currency conversion and relative inflation rates make the economic risk for investors unpalatable. By utilizing a more stable uber-currency such as CO2Bitcoin the currency hedge can be self-contained. There is also an issue with sovereign control over currency conversions and monetary policies governing the movement of fiat currencies into other more globally accepted currencies such as dollars or euros. This is usually done as a means to control inflation and the value of the fiat currency on the world market. National GDP imbalances and other factors all contribute to making it more difficult for developing countries to attract capital investment, especially into their domestic infrastructure. However, without this investment, it is difficult for them to establish a competitive position in the global economy.
Carbon Trade
If we are to have an impact on carbon levels then we need to be able to track the carbon impact that we have from beginning to end. Past attempts at tracking carbon and creating cap and trade systems have been the abuse that becomes proliferated in the system once large amounts of money become involved. Because of the large impact that carbon has and the amount of money that we spend as a society on energy, it is impossible to stop any carbon trading system from becoming a large financial engine. Our ability to create a system of transparency and fairness has been elusive because of many factors including the sheer amount of money involved and the geo-political overtones present in the carbon discussion.
Today blockchain technology brings new hope to solving this problem for us to create a fully transparent and fair carbon trading system. The CO2Bit tokens have been created as a significant part of this answer. The CO2Bit tokens leverage the public ledger of the Ethereum blockchain to track all of the information necessary to be able to validate and track a carbon credit.
A carbon credit is commonly defined as 1 Metric Ton of CO2 gas. The objective is for us as a society to have less of these units generated as well as to find ways to have units pulled out of our atmosphere. One path helps us reverse the previous exploits while the other helps us to curtail the continued production going forward. Both have value to us as a global society and therefore need to be incentivized through any carbon incentive-based trade system.
Carbon that is pulled out of the air and somehow sequestered is an effective way to eliminate the damage that CO2 can do to our atmosphere. And in this case, the biggest issue is to make certain that the CO2 unit is sequestered in a medium where it can be held and not released back into the atmosphere. So in this case the value is not just for sequestering the carbon but it is also for maintaining the carbon in that holding vessel over time. The longer the time it is held the higher the value it is to us as a society.
In the case of avoided carbon, the equation gets a bit more involved. For example, how do you measure the CO2 impact of energy generated from sources that do not use carbon as part of the process? If the idea is that you are avoiding the carbon cost that other methods would use to generate the same amount of energy then it would be necessary to understand better what those methods would be. For example, a coal powered plant would have a different carbon impact than a natural gas powered plant. So to really understand the carbon impact of a deployed carbon-free production technology then you would need to look at what the local method is that would otherwise be used to generate that same energy.
The other issue is that the manufacture of the materials themselves also have a carbon impact. So for example the manufacture of a solar module could through its manufacturing process possibly cost as much in carbon creation for its manufacture then it would save in its lifetime of energy production. So even though the solar module’s process of generating electricity is carbon-free it might have already created a carbon debt that would need to be satisfied before we can look to its ability to eliminate carbon by generating clean energy.
To accurately gauge the impact of any asset we will need to look at all of these factors and track them against the results so that we can accurately account for the carbon benefits of our choices. Therefore, this task entails tracking the method and location of manufacture, the energy-generating method used in the manufacturing process, the energy generation being replaced at the location where the manufactured asset is being deployed. To do this then the blockchain needs to be able to track assets from the cradle to the grave.
The CO2Bit Coin blockchain will be that public ledger to track all of the information needed to be able to value the carbon credit units generated by the asset throughout its lifetime. By also tracking the location of the asset as well as the actual energy produced from the asset during its lifetime we can make sure that the carbon accounting is done fairly and with the ultimate amount of transparency.
Tracking carbon is not as hard as it sounds, but it is something that requires a good deal of information and a trusted process. The Co2Bitcoin is uniquely situated to be able to track the information necessary to properly value carbon credits.
How the CO2Bit Project works
In order to promote the reduction of CO2 in our atmosphere, we need to continue to incentivize the appropriate climate behavior in all areas of the world. Every molecule of CO2 that is generated into our atmosphere matters and we need to make sure that we continue to provide the proper incentives to actors around the world. These inducements must be able to rise above local, national, and even international politics in order to continue effectiveness. To do this we are looking to leverage the innate abilities and powers contained in blockchain technology.
By creating a global currency whose focus is on the reduction of CO2 in our atmosphere and mitigate the inevitable social and economic ravages that climate change will have, we will be able to attack the problem on multiple levels and ultimately provide the financial support that we need globally to make a difference.
As a participant in the CO2Bit currency ecosystem, you will be able to help direct the future efforts of the world in fighting the climate change effect of the CO2 levels in our atmosphere and the innovations that will make it possible to reduce our collective carbon footprint. First off just by using the currency as a place to keep your money you will be able to participate in the appreciation of the currency on the world market as we all find ways to reduce our CO2 levels together. Secondly, you will be able to direct your token purchases to help specific initiatives and projects that you choose. Third, the currency itself will be an incentive for people to invest in CO2-reducing assets such as renewable power generation and to promote the forestation of our planet. Together we will be able to place the proper incentives to make our planet a better place for our children.
Any number of projects, from carbon-neutral steel manufacturing to agricultural advancements that better utilize existing plots of land and reduce further forest clearing to strategic initiatives that plan for and build a pool of resources to be deployed when large populations are displaced from there homes and farms by rising sea levels will have the ability to benefit from CO2Bit investments. Eventually, these assets will work by using 3rd party Internet Of Things (“IOT”) technologies to self-report and generate evidence of the benefits of using CO2Bit. The system will use blockchain technology as a means to assure accurate reporting.
The CO2Bit incentives offered to nation-states, NGO's, and developers will be done in a way that encourages a broadly shared visibility of the progress toward the collective goal of reducing CO2 emissions while helping all inhabitants. These stories, pictures, testimonials, and videos will help emitters balance their carbon footprint more effectively than current voluntary carbon credits do and in the process make CO2Bitcoins viable and attractive in the markets where it is desired to achieve global CO2 reduction goals.
The blockchain associated with the CO2Bitcoins and related tokens will also track the human benefit that they generate so that the ecosystem can monitor the benefits created by each individual project in the ecosystem. Blockchain readers will allow holders to see where the CO2Bitcoin has been in its circulation.
CO2Bit Tech is an international dispersed group of technologists and philanthropists undertaking the creation and support of the CO2Bit tokens system, Network-Based Digital Assets created as a mechanism to finance and promote the proliferation of sustainable carbon-neutral energy generation projects and assets to enable evolving participation in our global economy for all.
Joint Ventures continue to be formed for the purpose of utilizing CO2Bit tokens as part of a finance mechanism within countries for the sole purpose of addressing Climate Change and its socio economic impact associated with Climate Change through the increased implementation of Agricultural Efficiencies, reducing the cutting and clearing of tree stands, Regulations and Economic Incentives for significantly reducing Commercial Deforestation, and increasing implementation of Solar Energy Grids to reduce the use of all CO2 emitting fuels.
The CO2Bit Team and its partners have been able to implement dozens of solar projects, acquired control of hundreds of thousands of hectares of land to mitigate deforestation and continue to pursue carbon credit projects from cookstoves to wind farms from Brazil to Russia. In many of these projects, the group has endeavored to use CO2Bit collateral to top off the finance stack to allow these projects to progress when they otherwise floundered while awaiting final funding. Our next phase will be to expand the utilization through Awards Agreements governing the specific use of the Awards.