9 Promising Climate Focused Blockchain Projects for 2023 

The effort required to tackle the ongoing climate crisis is growing every day. Without leading projects and teams that dedicate their time to address the longer-term impacts of the climate crisis, the world is facing a bleak environmental outlook.

Using technological innovations can provide us with a deeper understanding of the policy issues, supply chain problems, and cultural issues faced by individuals today. With the right data, tracking and tools, support can be provided to projects that commit to a more sustainable future.

With the appropriate planning and development, progressive blockchain teams can create new systems that will help us to adapt to changing environments in this fast-paced world. 

According to Conservation.org, 11 percent of all global greenhouse gas emissions caused by humans are due to deforestation. Taking data from NASA's global climate change site it is clear that the planet is facing unprecedented change in our natural landscapes.

The sixth IPCC climate change report indicates that we are on a path to exceed 1.5C global warming unless we drastically reduce emissions. It also highlights that extreme weather events have become more frequent and that greenhouse gases released by humans are a key driver of temperature changes.

With all of the drastic climate scenarios facing us, how can blockchain solutions help us with these monumental challenges? The following projects are using blockchain technology to combat the negative impact of our over-reliance on natural resources. 

Founded in 2018, Regen Network is a project that allows farmers and individuals to track soil regeneration efforts on the blockchain. The broader vision encourages farmers to become land stewards, allowing them to be rewarded for their commitment to taking care of their land. In an open market, they can sell their ecological services such as holistic grazing or agroforestry to buyers globally. 

Toucan Protocol is the largest buyer of carbon offsets worldwide. Toucan is a blockchain project that is developing carbon market infrastructure. It is designed to bring the carbon market to individuals that want to support a more sustainable future. It runs on the Polygon network, an energy-efficient layer 2 blockchain. Toucan tokenize carbon credits on the blockchain.

The Climate Collective is a coalition of companies working together to build a connection between Web3 and climate action. Through collaboration, the collective can assess climate-focused organizations and connect them with streams of funding opportunities and partners. Their mission is to accelerate regenerative applications using Celo’s carbon-negative blockchain and mobile-first infrastructure.

Klima DAO was founded by a pseudo-anonymous group of developers. It operates as a decentralized autonomous organization (DAO) and is community-governed. The main focus of Klima DAO is to motivate companies to reduce their carbon emissions by focusing on increasing the cost of carbon emissions. Klima DAO incentivizes the new supply of Base Carbon Tonnes (BCT), a tokenized version of carbon credits, on the blockchain. Moreover, the project aims to store as many BCT as possible in its treasury by buying them for KLIMA.

Individuals can buy BCT on the market and bond them with KLIMA for a discount. After five days, they receive discounted KLIMA, which they can either sell for a profit or decide to stake with the protocol to expand their share of the KLIMA supply. 

Filecoin Green is a Protocol Labs initiative to decarbonize the Filecoin Network. The initiative is spearheading a future of verifiably clean energy powered by crypto. By marrying blockchain’s granular tracking functionality with the information-sharing infrastructure of Web3, Filecoin Green will incentivize its network to reduce emissions. Starting with decarbonizing the Filecoin Network, the initiative then aims to build open-source tools that quantifiably measure and mitigate emissions generated from crypto-related activity. 

The Sovereign Nature Initiative (SNI) fosters the exploration and development of technologies that can allow nature to become self-governing. SNI strives to reconfigure the intersection between ecology, economy, and emerging technologies. Using advanced NFT technology partnering with Unique Network, SNI is experimenting with alternative ways to give nature a voice in the development of a sustainable future. 

The Shamba team are developing a digital monitoring, reporting and verification system that leverages satellite data, geospatial models and AI to power Web3 applications. Small scale ReFi projects require accurate reporting and tracking to ensure no greenwashing is taking place. Shamba will provide the data and tools to unlock the benefits of the regenerative finance economy. 

Fresh from the discussions with leading climate change policy makers at COP27, the team at Digital Art 4 Climate have been consistently demonstrating the power of NFTs to showcase the impact of climate change in different scenarios. Since then they have launched with Unique Network and UN Habitat, Digital Art 4 Climate have been encouraging activists and artists to come together in support of climate research. 

Moss.earth is a Sao Paulo-based climate tech company pioneering digitization of environmental assets, starting with the conservation of the Amazon rainforest. Its initial product is MCO2, a tokenized carbon credit listed on the world's largest crypto exchange, and used by leading global corporations and institutions to instantaneously offset their corporate and customer carbon footprints. In one year, MOSS and its customers have sent more than $15 million USD to the Amazon Forest, helping preserve approximately 500 million trees. MOSS is the largest trader of voluntary carbon credits in Brazil and one of the largest in the world overall

As organizations continue the march towards a more sustainable future, Blockchain technology can help to provide the transparency required that proves the green initiatives of companies are working and making a difference. These climate focused initiatives incorporate elements of data capture, climate awareness and experimentation with new applications.