New Cambridge-built Decentralized Carbon Credit Marketplace will Support Reforestation to Meet Glasgow Climate Goal

Built on the energy-efficient self-upgradable Proof of Stake blockchain Tezos, The centre will use a combination of AI and satellite sensing to build a decentralised marketplace of verifiable carbon credits.

Based in the Department of Computer Science and Technology, and the Conservation Research Institute – the centre has two primary goals: to support students and researchers in the relevant areas of computer science, environmental science, and economics; and to create a decentralised marketplace where purchasers of carbon credits can confidently and directly fund trusted nature-based projects.

The Centre will build its decentralised marketplace on the Tezos blockchain because it operates sustainably, in line with the Centre’s vision to support a sustainable future through technology. The goal of the marketplace is to exponentially increase the number of real nature-based conservation and restoration projects by channelling funding towards them via market-based instruments.

“Current accreditation systems that measure and report the value of carbon and related benefits like biodiversity conservation and poverty reduction rendered by NbS are costly, slow and inaccurate,” said Centre Director Dr Anil Madhavapeddy. “These systems have undermined trust in NbS carbon credits. What is needed is a decentralised marketplace where purchasers of carbon credits can confidently and directly fund trusted nature-based projects. And that’s the gap the Centre is aiming to fill.”