Microsoft has joined a host of Web3 companies in launching the Ethereum Climate Platform that’ll see the group incentivising and funding development projects aimed towards mitigating greenhouse gas emissions and delivering both positive social and environmental impact.
The initiative was announced at the COP27 alongside other civil society leaders and the UNFCCC Climate Innovation Hub. Both ConsenSys, a blockchain software technology and enterprise software developer Allinfra united the Web3 companies.
The next step from ‘The Merge’
Joseph Lubin, founder and CEO of ConsenSys and co-founder of Ethereum commented, “The ‘merge’ – where the Ethereum blockchain moved to proof-of-stake rather than proof-of-work – set a new and extremely high bar for climate mitigation across the entire business and financial sector. It demonstrated that through sheer force of collective will, we can successfully drive technological decisions that massively reduce carbon output. But the climate crisis requires more radical change.
“This is why we are excited to come together with collaborators from among the most prominent actors from Web2 and Web3, as well as civil society leaders to accelerate climate innovations through the Ethereum Climate Platform.”
The Ethereum network’s annual CO2 emissions are estimated to be over 11 million tons per year as far back as 2015. The new ECP initiative launches two months after the merger and saw a 99.992 percent of Ethereum’s daily energy needs eliminated.
Bill Kentrup, the co-founder of Allinfra stated that, “Funding high-quality green projects is critical in the fight to mitigate human-driven climate change. Yet, historically, the process of deploying capital to the right projects and assessing their real impact has lacked transparency, efficiency and timeliness.
Saving the planet – starting with the blockchain
“We are pleased to have the opportunity to design and launch a better Web3-enabled climate finance platform and we acknowledge the outstanding advice and counsel of the UN Climate Change Global Innovation Hub over the past months in the draft design of this novel approach.”
And while the merge is seemingly indicating a more climate-friendly Ethereum in the future, the ECP is even more determined to tackle past emissions. The partners involved in the launch also plan to complete a study that’ll accurately estimate all past Ethereum emissions.
Sandeep Nailwal, co-founder of Polygon, also shared his thoughts by saying, “We look forward to the opportunity for the platform to further engage with strategic leaders across climate and Web3 in collaborative efforts over the coming years. With The Merge, Web3 showcased two of its core traits, innovation and speed. Both are critical to delivering climate solutions in our current crisis.
“We are excited to join forces with ConsenSys and our colleagues from Web2 and Web3 to tackle one of the most pressing challenges we face as citizens of the global community. The Ethereum Climate Platform is an important cross-collaborative initiative to tackle the climate crisis. By working together, we will strive to affect real and lasting change that will provide a better reality for all.”
Founding members of the platform’s launch is filled with a large number of big firms including AAVE, Art Blocks, Celo, CodeGreen.Org, Enterprise Ethereum Alliance, ERM, Filecoin Green, Gitcoin, Global Blockchain Business Council, Huobi Global, Laser Digital, Microsoft, Polygon, The Climate Collective, UPC Capital Ventures and W3bcloud, in collaboration with Gold Standard.
Isa Muhammad is a writer and video game journalist covering many aspects of entertainment media including the film industry. He's steadily writing his way to the sharp end of journalism and enjoys staying informed. If he's not reading, playing video games or catching up on his favourite TV series, then he's probably writing about them.
