Blockchain and Carbon Markets: Standards Overview

TL;DR

This paper reviews recent developments in blockchain standards for carbon markets, highlighting challenges, opportunities, and recommendations to enhance transparency, scalability, and adoption of best practices in international sustainability efforts.

Contribution

It provides a comprehensive overview of emerging standards and offers a layered analysis to guide future initiatives in blockchain-enabled carbon markets.

Findings

Emerging standards aim to improve transparency and integrity.

Layered ecosystem analysis identifies key challenges and opportunities.

Recommendations promote scalability and widespread adoption.

Abstract

The increasing significance of sustainability considerations within both public spheres (such as policies and regulations) and private sectors (including voluntary commitments by major multinational corporations) underscores the imperative to harness cutting-edge technological advancements. This is essential to ensure that the momentum of this trend translates into tangible outcomes, thwarting phenomena like greenwashing and upholding high standards of integrity, all while expediting progress through automation. This paper focuses specifically on carbon markets, which, after enduring years of confusion and controversy, may finally be on the brink of converging toward internationally recognized minimum standards. Beginning with an introduction to fundamental concepts pertaining to carbon markets and Distributed Ledger Technologies (DLTs), the paper proceeds to dissect the challenges and opportunities within this burgeoning field. Its primary contribution lies in offering a comprehensive overview of recent developments across various initiatives (such as ICVCM, IETA/WorldBank/CAD Trust, IEEE/ISO) and providing a layered analysis of the entire ecosystem. This framework aids in understanding and prioritising future endeavours. Ultimately, the paper furnishes a set of recommendations aimed at bolstering scalability and fostering widespread adoption of best practices within international markets.