Blockchain features on WEF whitepaper as a tool to fight climate change

The World Economic Forum (WEF) has recently published a whitepaper that explains how blockchains are able to provide the needed infrastructure to fight against climate change “at speed and scale.” 

We've just published a World Economic Forum @wef whitepaper detailing blockchain technology's valuable role in the global effort to fight climate change.

Thanks @ToucanProtocol @BL4SG_ and more than 60 ReFi organizations that contributed to this research!https://t.co/RUwb9Z5Ipy

— Climate Collective (@clim8collective) April 25, 2023

According to the whitepaper, blockchain's value to the climate action community can be split into four categories. Firstly, blockchains are able to "strengthen trust and ambition" within climate negotiations. It can also improve market transparency and credibility as well as funnel more funds to project developers. Lastly, the WEF wrote that digitization "democratizes access" to climate action. 

Brynly Llyr, the head of blockchain and digital assets, at WEF’s crypto impact and sustainability accelerator (CISA), said that it’s very important to consider and research emerging technologies as tools to help address climate change. Llyr explained that:

“Global climate infrastructure, tools, and coordination technologies can all help us keep pace with our changing planetary ecosystem. This is where blockchain and shared infrastructure technologies can be helpful."

Because of blockchain’s potential, the whitepaper also highlighted that industry leaders are agreeing that there’s a need for “constructive regulation” that supports responsive digital climate innovation.

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Dana Gibber, the CEO of the blockchain climate project Flowcarbon, said that it’s important for policymakers to consider the various applications of blockchains and not just the most prominent ones. “This goes beyond cryptocurrencies, and encompasses what you can build on blockchain,” Gibber noted.

Meanwhile, crypto exchange Coinbase is also making an effort to fight for more regulatory clarity for the digital asset space in the United States. On April 25, the crypto platform filed a court action that aims to compel the Securities and Exchange Commission to its rulemaking petition that’s been pending since last July. Following this, the exchange has also launched a nonfungible token (NFT) campaign that called for more sensible crypto policies.

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