Polygon Claims They Have Achieved Carbon Neutrality

Polygon claims to be squeaky green: In a collab with KlimaDAO, the Polygon ecosystem has retired $400,000 in carbon credits to offset greenhouse gas emissions.

Polygon, is an Ethereum scaling platform that is onboarding millions to Web3. According to a press release issued yesterday, the platform says its network has reached carbon neutrality.

The milestone was hit on the road to becoming carbon negative. They plan to do this by permanently retiring $400,000 in carbon credits. This is in an effort to offset 104,794 tonnes of greenhouse gasses. The gas has been emitted since the beginnings of the blockchain.

Polygon released its Green Manifesto in April, pledging $20 million for initiatives using Web3 to create new solutions for on-chain carbon credit retirement.

The platform says, “Blockchain technology makes carbon offsetting uniquely powerful, as carbon credits in any volume can be retired with complete transparency. Entities can purchase carbon offsets, view real-time market data, and accelerate the delivery of financing to high-impact carbon projects around the world. By offsetting the historical emissions of the whole network, Polygon has ensured that every transaction – whether the minting of an NFT or a DeFi trade – is accounted for and its environmental impact is offset.”

Polygon and KlimaDAO

Polygon say they have hit their target thanks to a collaboration with KlimaDAO. “This a decentralized collective of environmentalists, developers, and entrepreneurs that is widely recognized as a pioneer in the nascent, on-chain carbon market. KlimaDAO has brought transparency and accessibility to the otherwise opaque voluntary credit markets.”

KlimaDAO and Offsetra analyzed the network’s energy footprint. “The scope of analysis covered emissions from staking node hardware, energy consumption of staking operations, and contracts directly interacting with Ethereum mainnet. Polygon also works with the Crypto Carbon Ratings Institute (CCRI) to audit its carbon footprint. Polygon then purchased $400,000 worth of tokenized credits via the on-chain carbon market and retired them using KlimaDAO’s offset aggregator tool. All BCT and MCO2 tokenized credits were created from offsets certified under the Verified Carbon Standard.”

Polygon also worked with KlimaDAO to support other projects:

-Bull Run Forest Conservation project in Belize, which protects pine forests

-The Ghani Solar Power Project, a 500-megawatt renewable electricity generation project in India

-A wind power project at Jaibhim, India

-Moss.Earth, which finances Amazon conservation using its MCO2 token.

Carbon Neutrality

Sandeep Nailwal is the co-founder of Polygon. “Our world is facing an environmental crisis, and the blockchain industry must do far more than promise to stop adding to the problem. Reaching carbon neutrality is an important first step, but there is more work ahead. Polygon will lead the way as the whole industry moves toward becoming a net positive for the environment.”

Polygon will host The Green Blockchain Summit on July 13^th. It is a virtual forum for Web3 leaders to solve problems facing the blockchain industry.

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