Get the latest tech news

A Crypto Company Thinks It Can Help Fight Climate Change

Toucan is leveraging blockchain to reinvent the carbon credit market. But thorny questions abound.

By centralizing the blockchain carbon market on one infrastructure and working with credits already on physical registries, another proposed benefit for Toucan then is that it’s bringing a little order to this infamously unregulated and potentially even scam-filled world. One investigation of oil company Shell’s promise to let customers carbon-offset their fuel purchases, found that three of the projects used to drive that offsetting were either at risk of deforestation or that their actual impact was hard to prove. While that can look good on a company’s annual report, especially one trying to claim to be achieving net zero, the persisting dubious quality of many carbon projects means their impact is minimal, and in fact could make those burning fossil fuels focus less on reducing the amount they’re emitting.

Get the Android app