The InterWork Alliance has announced a new business working group intended to aid global efforts on sustainability. IWA members participating in the initiative are exploring tokenization as a way to establish trust in carbon and other greenhouse gas accounting systems using distributed ledger technology (DLT).

Neo will join several other IWA members as a participant in the working group, helping to develop a standardized solution for tackling the verifiability issues surrounding carbon and other greenhouse gas emissions, offsets, and credits. Commenting on the announcement, Neo co-founder Da Hongfei noted:

“Blockchain can help to build a new technology-empowered international paradigm. Within this construct, carbon trading could be conducted in an open and fair public marketplace on-chain, assuring the sustainability of the agreement while minimizing friction.”

The endeavour is an example of the IWA’s broader strategy to encourage token-powered innovation through a diverse range of application scenarios. The global threat posed by rising carbon emissions presents a unique opportunity for the IWA, who is well positioned to assist in the leveraging of standards and DLT to tackle auditability and trust.

Marley Gray, principal architect at Microsoft and chairman of the IWA, provided perspective on how the initiative will move forward:

“The Sustainability Business Working Group will look at the business uses cases for emissions reporting and the tokenization of carbon offsets and credits to create a more efficient and standardized method for exchanging certificates and other digital assets tied to reducing greenhouse gas emissions.”

In a IWA blog post authored by Gray, more detail is provided on the example use case of carbon credits, observed to act as “a key driver and incentive for any organization committing to a sustainability plan.”

Highlighting the need for a common infrastructure, Gray explains how the IWA is positioned to influence carbon emission markets and climate sustainability:

“Tokenizing the outputs of verified reporting standards, in a standard way, could unlock a much more robust ecosystem – leading to the establishment of a common representation of carbon accounting standards and an international, trusted distributed network for combating climate change.”

The Sustainability Business Working Group’s first port of call is the creation of standards for tokenization and certification of greenhouse gas/carbon emissions and offsets in a technology-neutral manner. Together these standards will form the underlying framework for voluntary carbon markets. Later efforts by the group will see its focus extend to regulated markets.

The original announcement can be found at the link below:
https://interwork.org/the-interwork-alliance-sustainability-initiative-to-develop-trusted-solution-for-standardizing-token-based-carbon-emission-accounting,-credits,-and-offsetting/

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