Yale University's OpenLab team will use blockbusters, Internet of Things sensors and other data processing tools to measure and track carbon emissions.
The team from Yale University's OpenLab for Open Climate is exploring how modern technologies can contribute to global carbon accounting mechanisms. Their goal is to create tools that will help to comply with the Paris Agreement and the United Nations Framework for Action to reduce global average temperature by 2°C to pre-industrial levels.
"In my opinion, the solution to climate change and carbon reduction now lies in the accounting system", — said Martin Wainstein, founder of OpenLab.
The Open Climate Project recently started working with the Hyperledger blockchain greenhouse initiative, implemented by the Linux Foundation. Weinstein said Open Climate can use the blockchain for its purposes like the Grid solution for the Hyperledger Sawtooth supply chain.
"I think it's a good idea to have a dedicated structure similar to the HL Grid for climate initiatives," — said Weinstein. "We'll probably be able to talk about some development results in the next couple of months.
Working in Canada
Weinstein Group is working with the Government of British Columbia, Canada, on a project to use Hyperledger digital identification domains to track and verify oil well performance in the region. The carbon footprint of an oil well is also measured and the province's Digital Identification System, which includes a DLT in its architecture, gives permission in the form of verifiable credentials.
"We are very interested in British Columbia's work in the area of verifiable credentials for oil well permits," — said Weinstein. "The system design allows for the use of verifiable credentials to issue permits, and the same architecture for the Internet of Things (IoT) device credentials that reports on how this oil well is used. In this way, you go all the way to the subnational level using your own verifiable credentials.
Verifiable Credentials — a way to establish trust between entities. As with digital versions of physical credentials (passports or credit cards), they can be presented and verified on a P2P basis. Reliable digital identification uses cryptographic signatures derived from Public Key Infrastructure (PKI), but is decentralized.
Instead of centralized checks, block keys can be used as a kind of "public key", so the publishers of the verified credentials can make their public keys available to everyone via DLT. This is an "easy" way to use a blocker compared to, for example, writing transactions to a chain or storing transaction data in a chain.
"We don't see our work as 'building a blockage' and we don't face the challenges of adopting the technology," said John Jordan, director of digital technology for BC. "Yes, we use a blockchain, but on a highly technical level - it has nothing to do with the end user or the services that can issue, check and recall credentials.
Another Open Climate collaboration is the introduction of digitally verifiable credentials into the Verses Labs 'spatial network' protocol. This project deals with virtual space construction using IoT sensors and artificial intelligence. This is a way of "doing things in the real world, but managing them in the digital world," Weinstein said.
Audit capabilities
Accurate accounting of carbon emissions using new digital protocols also represents a "huge opportunity for the "big four" of audit firms.
"I spoke with the Big Four and explained to them that carbon accounting will be an important part of their business in the future," Weinstein said. "I think they're starting to understand that. We have focused on the technical side of the project and then hope to implement it at a later stage when they can start working at the consortium level.
When it comes to establishing consortia, experience from previous undertakings suggests that it's necessary to establish such organizations in stages. Open Climate, for example, is now in its first phase, which involves raising charitable capital and bringing together non-profit organizations, especially universities and large organizations, to work together. It is important to create a core group of organisations that do not necessarily have a personal interest, Weinstein said.
"Around the beginning of next year, if all goes well, we will create a funding model in a consortium under which corporate assets can be contributed. But that will only happen to the Ambassador
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