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Innovation Tagline:  Using the blockchain to create supply chain incentive to help reduce up to 1 Gt CO2e of Greenhouse Gas emissions per year. 

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In this project, we will work on using the blockchain to provide trusted data on methane and transfer that data to fuel consumers to incentivize methane reduction at the point of production.  The first part of the project will integrate data from different sources to arrive at the best estimate of the methane emissions of a facility.  The second part of the project will use Value chain (scope 3) reporting standards to calculate the impact of methane emissions reduction on the fuel used by customers.  It could then be used as part of the Supply Chain Decarbonization Project to incentivize the use of lower  fuels with lower embedded emissions.

Through this we hope to help provide greater visiblity to the oil producers, their investors, and government agencies and NGO's involved in reducing methane flaring and leakage.  We also hope to create an additional lever, where fuel consumers could actively participate in reducing methane emissions.  

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Solution

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The consumer could also reduce its carbon intensity (CI) by purchasing a certificate from a low CI producer.  This certificate could come in two forms: A certificate of carbon intensity, which would help producers with lower carbon intensity to obtain greater value for their output, or an actual offset, to provide funding for producers with high carbon intensity to reduce it. 

A certificate of carbon intensity is simply a transferrable claim of origin backed up by data.  It is similar to a Renewable Energy Certificate (REC), but whereas a REC attests that electricity produced is from a renewable source, the certificate of carbon intensity attests the carbon intensity of the crude petroleum.  It could then be transferred between two users of fuel so that a user which is looking to reduce its emissions footprint could pay for a lower carbon fuel, without physically taking delivery of it.  This would require simultaneously subtracting the embedded emissions of the fuel inventory of the consumer and adding back it to the embedded emissions of the fuel inventory of the producer.  In future transactions, the producer would have to attach a higher CI to the fuel it sells as it sells certificates of lower embedded emissions.  This creates a mechanism for fuel consumers looking to reduce their emissions footprint to incentivize producers to reduce their carbon intensitywhere a producer of lower carbon fuels could monetize greater value for their output.

In contrast, an offset is an accounting of emissions reduction in return for an investment, such as equipment for capturing, storing, and transporting methane  This creates an incentive to make capital investments at high carbon intensity producers to reduce them.  To be valid, an offset must follow the general principles of carbon offsets, such as Additionality, Correct Baseline, Permanence, Real, and Leakage protection – In other words, the emissions reductions must not have occurred without the investment from the buyers of the offsets.  The offset would be a token which would transfer the emissions reductions to the buyers of the offsets, which again could be a fuel user

Figure 3 Architecture for verifying waste emission. 

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Si Chen is the founder of Open Source Strategies, Inc. and coordinates the Carbon Accounting and Certification WG of the hyplerledger Climate Action and Accounting (CA2 SIG).  He is the author of the open source book, Open Climate Investing, and a co-editor of an upcoming book "Sustainable Carbon Economy with Blockchain: The Role of Oil and Gas Industry in The Energy Transition". 

Woody Moore is currently acting Co-chair of the Climate Action and Accounting Special Interest Group (CA2SIG). He holds a Masters in Business Administration with 10+ years of experience planning and executing Go-to-Market strategies for early stage tech start-ups. He also has expertise in the field of internet governance, where he supports ICANN's (Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers) multistakeholder decision-making model to help the global community reach consensus around the protocols, standards and policies needed to support the security, stability and resiliency of the internet's Domain Name System.

b. Identify talent/resource gaps and needs (Do you need more support developing the blockchain solution? Do you need support with front end development? Do you need support developing the business model?)

Project Plan