- Algorand and ClimateTrade’s Green Treasury goes live, allowing builders, businesses and investors on the Algorand platform to instantly offset their carbon footprint on the blockchain ecosystem.
- ClimateTrade supports Algorand in offsetting the carbon emissions of Decipher, a two-day event of the Algorand community taking place in Miami November 29-30.
- Cultural institution Aorist partners with ClimateTrade to launch a collection of digital artworks and their carbon-negative NFTs at Art Basel on November 30.
November 29, 2021 (Miami, FL) — ClimateTrade, the leading blockchain-based climate marketplace, is pioneering the development of carbon-negative blockchain use cases through a number of initiatives announced today at the Decipher conference.
ClimateTrade today announces the launch of the “Green Treasury”, a blockchain oracle providing Algorand and its developer community a platform for offsetting the carbon footprint of the Algorand network.
By calculating carbon impact across the Algorand ecosystem and enabling immediate offsets through ClimateTrade’s blockchain-based marketplace, the Green Treasury allows Algorand to offset its own carbon impact, while seamlessly integrating the same offsetting capabilities across its ecosystem of developers, including NFT marketplaces, payment solutions, regulated digital assets, and new economic models.
“Algorand’s technology was designed from the ground-up to be energy and resource-efficient, and now with the intelligent offsetting services made available through ClimateTrade’s Green Treasury, we can operate as a fully carbon-negative network and fulfill our pledge to remain the world’s greenest blockchain,” said Silvio Micali, Founder of Algorand.
The Green Treasury operates as a blockchain oracle, connecting Algorand’s on-chain data with carbon impact information in real time. The system allows Algorand to notarize its carbon footprint, and with advanced smart contracts, lock the equivalent total of carbon credit into the Green Treasury as an ASA (Algorand Standard Asset).
“With the Green Treasury, we can support Algorand’s efforts to be carbon-negative while financing global climate projects”, said ClimateTrade CEO Francisco Benetido. “By layering in blockchain-enabled support for offsetting across Algorand’s ecosystem, we can provide Algorand, and the hundreds of organizations who use its technology, environmentally-positive solutions that are scalable, secure, and also sustainable”.
Offsets purchased within the Green Treasury will help support critical restoration projects taking place around the world that significantly contribute to positive climate action, including:
- The Southern Cardamom REDD+ project initiated by Wildlife Rescue and Wildlife Works, which protects the rainforest by avoiding more than 3 million tons of carbon emissions annually.
- The Vichada Gold Standard Climate Project which is aimed at reforestation in the Orinoco Department in Colombia.
- The Oaxaca Wind Project by Acciona which covers the electricity demand of 700,000 Mexican homes, avoiding the emission of 670,000 tons of CO2.
- The Sumatra Merang Peatland Project by ForestCO2 which aims to protect and restore the peatland ecosystem in Indonesia.
Additionally, as part of Algorand’s commitment to set the standard for sustainable blockchain, Algorand and ClimateTrade have announced that all carbon impacts associated with the Decipher conference will be offset by financing mitigation projects on ClimateTrade’s marketplace. In total, 627 tons of CO2 will be offset via reforestation and clean energy projects in Colombia, El Salvador and the United States.
Climate-positive NFTs
ClimateTrade is also supporting Aorist, a new cultural institution offering a climate-forward NFT marketplace on the Algorand ecosystem. The company is launching its first auction at Art Basel, an event happening concurrently with Decipher in Miami, with the Crossroads exhibition. Aorist is offsetting the carbon footprint of the non-fungible tokens (NFTs) on auction, as well as the plastic footprint of some of Crossroads’ physical installations, through ClimateTrade.
Emissions from the minting of NFTs on the Aorist platform will be offset with credits assigned from the reforestation of Colombia’s coastal Andes region project. Projects on the ClimateTrade marketplace have an account in the Algorand blockchain platform in order to provide traceability and transparency of carbon credits.
With these initiatives, ClimateTrade shines a light on the need to decarbonise blockchain technology and NFTs, and positions itself as a strategic partner for the green blockchain movement.
About Algorand
Algorand is building the technology to power everything from the creator economy to the convergence of traditional and decentralized finance. Founded by Turing Award-winning cryptographer Silvio Micali, Algorand developed a blockchain infrastructure that offers the interoperability and capacity to handle the volume of transactions needed for anyone to transition into the new digital economy. The leading decentralized infrastructure of choice for visionary leaders across more than 1000 global organizations, Algorand is enabling the simple creation of next generation financial products, protocols and exchange of value. For more information, visit algorand.com.
About ClimateTrade
ClimateTrade is a Spanish-based climate marketplace helping global brands achieve their sustainability goals by offsetting CO2 emissions and financing climate regenerative projects. Pioneering the development of its blockchain marketplace, ClimateTrade recently launched an API and a Widget that allow companies to offer carbon-neutral products and services to their customers. For more information: https://climatetrade.com/.
