Blockchain Climate Action Tracking (B-CAT)
This project aims to research how distributed ledger technologies like blockchain could improve upon existing data storage, progress tracking, and governance of non-state actors’ climate pledges and progress to inform future research and policy.

Objective:
Over its three-year time frame, the project seeks to answer four main questions:
1) Who are the primary actors, verifiers, and users that will participate in the B-CAT ecosystem and what requirements might they have for engagement?
2) How can next-generation technology, such as distributed ledger technology (e.g., blockchain) and the Internet of Things, be applied to automate incentive schemes and protocols that can address identified data and knowledge gaps in non-state climate action?
3) What are the potential impacts and challenges in the science of tracking climate action with this new blockchain framework?
4) Where can blockchain tools provide significant value in climate use-cases, and what issues and architectural considerations would need to be addressed for these to be applied effectively and at scale? What are both the explicit limitations and positive implications of emerging technology?
Partners: OpenEarth Foundation, Climate Action Data 2.0 Community, Yale Institute for Network Science / School of Electrical Engineering, Hyperledger
Funders: National Science Foundation Award (No. 1932220) and the Carnegie Corporation of New York (No. G-21-58463)
DDL contacts: Marco Schletz, Angel Hsu, PhD
This project aims to research how distributed ledger technologies like blockchain can develop a trusted and decentralized data management and accounting scheme for non-state action pledges. Using an interdisciplinary approach that leverages insights from academic researchers, industry partners, non-state and subnational climate action practitioners, and policymakers, it innovates a framework and architecture for Blockchain Climate Action Tracking (B-CAT). This framework, developed in both theory and tested in proof-of-concept prototypes, will be used to define if and where blockchain and complementary technologies (e.g., internet-of-things) can improve upon existing efforts tracking climate policy.
Results:
- Publications
- Nested Climate Accounting for Our Atmospheric Commons—Digital Technologies for Trusted Interoperability Across Fragmented Systems
- ‘We Desperately Need to Modernize Climate Change Emissions Tracking’, Scientific American – Opinion.
- UNEP Blockchain publication on integrating climate accounting and financing (January, 2022)
- Featured in Cointelegraph article on “How will blockchain technology help fight climate change? Experts answer“ (Sep 2021);
- Blog post on “Blockchain energy consumption: Debunking the misperceptions of Bitcoin’s and blockchain’s climate impact“ (Aug 2021);
- Publication of Forbes article on blockchain for climate accounting.
- Presentations & Dissemination
- National Academies Committee on “Development of a Framework for Evaluating Global Greenhouse Gas Emissions Information for Decision Making.”
- High-level champions events (COP&SBs) at COP26 in Glasgow, to inform on the role of blockchain-based digital infrastructure and data harmonization for integrating non-state actor insights in the Paris Agreement, and again in UNFCCC Bonn’s Technical Dialogue of the Global Stocktake.
- Panelist at flagship World Youth Forum session with the Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, United States special presidential envoy for climate John Kerry, Alok Sharma, Inger Andersen, and Yolande Wright on “The Road from Glasgow to Sharm El-Sheikh: Combating Climate Change Panel Discussion” (Jan 2022);
- UN Innovation Network in collaboration with Klima DAO and the Open Earth Foundation to discuss how blockchain technologies contribute to and can help to respond to the challenges posed by climate change.
- Panelist at MIT Media Lab event at the COP26 UNFCCC Innovation Pavillion on “A Clearer Picture: Towards Radical Transparency in Measurement, Reporting and Verification of Climate Action with AI“ (Nov 2021);
- Interview at openCOP, presenting on the mainstage on the importance of an inclusive COP26 for creating inclusive nested governance systems and technology architectures (Nov 2021);
- Expert panelist for the German Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy (BMWi) during the workshop “blockchain & sustainability” (Oct 2021);
- Panelist at CodeX, The Stanford Center for Legal Informatics, Pre-COP2021 on Climate Change and New Technologies (Oct 2021);
- Panelist on “Nordic and German pathways towards a low carbon transition – How will innovation shape the future?“, organized by the Konrad-Adenauer-Foundation Nordic Countries Programme (Sep 2021);
- Featured in Cointelegraph article on “How will blockchain technology help fight climate change? Experts answer“ (Sep 2021);
- Blog post on “Blockchain energy consumption: Debunking the misperceptions of Bitcoin’s and blockchain’s climate impact“ (Aug 2021);
- Episode on the MyEnergy2050 Podcast on “Digital Democracy: Blockchaining the Paris Agreement“ (July 2021)
- “Accountability without Accounting: The potential of digital technology for new modes of transparency in the post-Paris climate regime.” 7th Transparency Governance Conference. May 19. Copenhagen.
- We organized and hosted two workshop at the Innovate4Climate conference on “Innovative Technologies for Climate Market Accounting” (85 participants) and on “Creating climate transparency through innovative digital technologies” (110 participants)
- Discussion of insights at “Digital Technology & Climate Governance Co-Working Sprint” organized by FutureEarth Sustainability in the Digital Age initiative. Participated in working sessions with broader community an distilled insights from research program regarding blockchain integration with other digital enablers to apply to specific use cases explored by FutureEarth community (i.e., digital innovation in facilitating sustainable smallholder agriculture)
- Presentation of key findings and demonstration work at the April 2021 OpenClimate Collabathon hosted by Yale Openlab.
- Presentation of key finding and insights in different international conferences and panels, such as: UN Open Science, Smart Contract Summit (Chainlink), Hyperledger Global Forum.