Tokenized Voluntary Carbon Offsetting Mechanism for Accelerated Adoption
Description
Switzerland ratified the Paris Agreement in 2017 and at the recently held UNCCC in Glasgow committed to global climate change goals, renewing its pledge to halve emissions by 2030. The country has also committed to the UN SDG policy framework, including the Voluntary National Reporting (VNR) standard for transparent annual progress updates. However, the PwC (2021) Study “Net Zero Economy Index ” finds that all countries are currently far off the path to reach even the revised global warming goal of 2°C above pre-industrial levels, let alone the original goal of 1.5°C. The proposed project combines science and technology founded innovations from cross-disciplinary fields into a unique digital market concept focused on taking an important step towards better emission mitigation. Building on a successful Innocheck project, the bundled innovations include an integrated business model with economic and social/ecological value creation, a novel digital “green currency” with tokenised GHG allowance certificates on the blockchain, value chain greenification for businesses, and an enticing consumer engagement model to stimulate broad and accelerated Voluntary Carbon Offsetting (VCO) adoption with gamified use-cases (i.e. social and psychological motivators, social standards, and economic and ecological impact). This project aims to offer attractive options to its target groups and open up the VCO market in Switzerland and DACH by providing easy access to GHG mitigation initiatives. A matched team consisting of the implementation partner Peer Energy AG (PEP), a Swiss start-up, and experienced researchers from the ZHAW School of Management and Law will collaborate to deliver this vision. The main project deliverables cover a prototype application of the transaction engine and market simulator for lab-testing, including conducting test market studies and model adjustments and calibration to the local market conditions, as an input to PEP’s subsequent commercialisation roadmap.
Key Data
Projectlead
Deputy Projectlead
Project team
Prof. Dr. Beat Affolter, Dr. Jesse Bächler, Fabian Danko, Prof. Dr. Pia Furchheim, Dr. Grégoire Meylan, Matteo Mösli
Project status
ongoing, started 07/2022
Funding partner
Innosuisse
Project budget
289'248 CHF