IBM China Wants to Use Blockchain to Fight Carbon Emissions
IBM’s China division is working with a regional textile printing firm to to develop a platform for trading digital assets tied to carbon emissions.
Nov 17, 2016 at 1:56 p.m. UTC:format(webp)/cloudfront-us-east-1.images.arcpublishing.com/coindesk/BTLCRGMIVJA5JP6AHSLRGSORTQ.jpg)
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IBM and a China-based firm are using blockchain to build a prototype marketplace for carbon assets.
The company is working with Energy Blockchain Labs, a blockchain company that has tested blockchain-based solutions related to energy provision. The hope, according to IBM, is to encourage companies to take steps to reduce their emissions by making it more efficient to develop and manage carbon assets.
It’s not a goal without a sense of gravity, as China produces about a quarter of the world’s carbon emissions. Though the use of coal has fallen in China, projects like the IBM-Energy Blockchain Labs initiative could push more companies to take action on the technology side.
The test is the latest for IBM in China. The technology firm has worked with other firms including credit card company China UnionPay and Walmart’s regional subsidiary to develop applications.
Chinese automaker Wanxiang, among other major companies in the country, is among those that have also held discussions with IBM about investigating the tech.
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