In her monthly Expert Take column, Selva Ozelli, international tax lawyer and CPA, covers the intersection between emerging technologies and sustainability, and provides the latest developments in taxation, AML/CFT regulations and legal issues affecting crypto. and blockchain.
In June, the United Nations hosted its event “Stockholm+50: A Healthy Planet for Prosperity for All — Our Responsibility, Our Opportunity”, focusing on the implementation of its Decade of Action to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals , the 2030 Agenda, the Paris Agreement, and the post-2020 biodiversity framework, as well as to encourage a green recovery from COVID-19. The event took place 50 years after the very first United Nations Conference on the Human Environment in 1972, giving world leaders the opportunity to reflect on five decades of environmental action focused on tackling climate crises. , nature and carbon dioxide pollution.
My art exhibition “Reef Dwellers” was an event associated with Stockholm+50. He celebrated the role the oceans play in daily life and sought to inspire action to protect reefs, which occupy just 0.1% of the world’s sea surface yet harbor more than 25% of biodiversity. Marine.
The oceans act as large natural carbon reservoirs, absorbent 25% of current annual CO2 emissions and hosting 80% of all life while providing half of the planet’s oxygen. According to the United States National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration:
“More than 90% of the warming that has occurred on Earth over the past 50 years has occurred in the ocean.”
The rate at which the oceans are warming is equivalent to five Hiroshima atomic bombs being dropped there every second.
Related: How blockchain technology is transforming climate action
How does blockchain contribute to the preservation of reefs and the safeguard of the ocean?
Future Thinkers a describe several major solutions on how blockchain can help protect the environment.
1. Supply Chains
Blockchain technology is used to improve fish traceability to help end illegal and unsustainable fishing practices. Fishcoin is a blockchain-based seafood traceability project that “incentivizes supply chain actors to share data from point of harvest to point of consumption” to help build a seafood industry more open, transparent and accountable.
Related: Enterprise blockchain will play a central role in creating a sustainable future
2. Recycling | 3. Environmental Treaties
Plastic pollution is a global ecological crisis. In a landmark decision on March 2, the United Nations Environment Assembly agreed to create a landmark international treaty to end plastic pollution. According to the UN, the effort could end up at an 80% reduction in the volume of plastics entering the oceans by 2040, a 55% reduction in the production of virgin plastic and a 25% reduction in greenhouse gas emissions. It could also save governments $70 billion by 2040 and create an additional 700,000 jobs, mostly in the Global South.
One project addressing the problem of plastic pollution is Diatom DAO, which has proposed a tokenized plastic disposal credits framework. Its goal is to leverage the capabilities of decentralized finance (DeFi) to build a reliable, verifiable, and efficient plastic disposal supply chain that increases recycling, reduces use, funds high-cost disposal projects leverage, establishes new channels of circularity and stimulates innovation in new materials.
4. Energy
Since the start of the industrial revolution, the ocean has seen a 30% increase in its acidity due to the absorption of carbon dioxide. Captura seeks to use floating solar power plants to extract CO2 from the ocean, while Toucan Protocol builds the infrastructure for a carbon market to finance world-class climate solutions in a bid to accelerate the transition to zero net carbon in accordance with the Paris Agreement.
5. Non-profit organizations
OceanDrop is a non-fungible charitable token project of the Open Earth Foundation, a non-profit organization dedicated to developing open-source technologies for climate action. Proceeds from NFT sales, which are tied to carbon offsets, support a pilot project to expand marine protected areas in Cocos Island and Costa Rica.
The Crypto Coral Tribe is an NFT project that directs 50% of its revenue towards marine and wildlife conservation initiatives. Its goal is to form a creative center that draws on art and technology to help restore the natural world. He hopes to plant 3,000 corals globally through his network of marine conservation partners, including Coral Guardian, Coral Triangle Center and the Turks and Caicos Reef Fund.
6. Carbon tax | 7. Change incentives
US President Joe Biden came to power with a plan to get Americans away from fossil fuels, and he demonstrated that intent with a regulatory agenda that included carbon taxes. However, the Supreme Court and Russia’s war in Ukraine have upended its climate plans.
Related: UN COP26 climate change targets include emerging technologies and carbon taxes
The views, thoughts and opinions expressed herein are those of the author alone and do not necessarily reflect or represent the views and opinions of Cointelegraph.
Selva OzelliEsq., CPA, is an international tax attorney and accountant who writes frequently on tax, legal and accounting matters for Tax Notes, Bloomberg BNA, other publications and the OECD.