New Delhi (Kalinga Voice) : Eminent climate scientist and Former Member to Prime Minister’s National Strategic Knowledge Mission on Climate Change Dr Srikanta K Panigrahi released India’s First Carbon Offset Token # Bhu (In Sanskrit Bhu: means Earth). MrJayeshRanjan, IAS Principal Secretary (IT) to Government of Telangana, DrPrvaeenRao, Vice-Chancellor, PJTSAU, DrKalpanaShastry, MD Agriculture-Hub, PJTSAU and Mr Kishore Butani was among other dignitaries in the function.
In recent days, the demand Of Block chain-enabled Carbon Offset Tokens are constantly rising, in the International Carbon Markets; because of its genuineness, as Blockchain ensures the traceability of carbon credit generation-related life cycles. Hence Carbon Offset Tokens are getting more and more popular these days, as no duplication is possible, alsocan’t be listed more than once anywhere. Global IT Giant Microsoft has declared to be Carbon Minus or Negative by 2030 in its products and process; for which it will source Carbon Credits from the Carbon Markets for Off-setting. They have preferred and opting for Blockchain enabled Carbon Offset Tokens, in place carbon credits,generated in traditional mode, for Offsetting their Carbon Foot-print. When a Carbon Credit gets transformed to a Carbon Offset Token, its price immediately goes up, with a possibility of fetching, may be 1.5 to even 2 times higher, then normal market price.
Since Blockchain is a proven technology-enabled tool; its international acceptability is huge. Even Blockchain-enabled Carbon Offset Tokens will subsequently would be very useful in the reduction of transaction cost of the Carbon Credit generation cycle; at global level, UNFCCC and Other International Voluntary Carbon Market Enablers are willing now to reduce the Role as well as Professional Fees of Verifiers and Validators in such cases. Government of India, Ministry Of Finance also recently constituted a Committee to study Non-Fungible Token (NFT). An NFT is a digital asset repressing real-world objects like art, music, IP, Patents as well as carbon credits
Speaking on occasion, Dr Panigrahi said nature has the power to recoup itself. Still, because of the excessive extortion on nature, the earth’s average temperature has gone beyond the tolerance limit of 1.2degree centigrade. We have lost more than 30% of our biodiversity; our agricultural productivity has decreased, threatening our food security and also many other adversities are taking place relating to the increase in earth’s temperature. I am highly delighted that TRST01 has planned on such an auspicious occasion, to launch their first carbon offset token, named after One Of our five essential elements (PanchaMahaBhutas) of nature, and Blockchain is such a critical technology, which enables the trust and transparency in the ecosystem. He further said, with the release of the first carbon Token, we are not only celebrating the mother earth, but also celebrating the historic release of the India’s first carbon offset token, # Bhu.
Mr Jayesh Ranjan, IAS, said this is very appreciable how the TRST01 team has come up with a novel idea for Carbon Credit NFT. He further added that Telangana state is aggressively promoting the emerging technologies and web3.0 ecosystem in the state.
Agribusiness is the key to climate change initiatives and achieving food, nutrition security, and sustainable goals. The time has come to take some bold steps to preserve our Planet. The importance of end to end Blockchain traceability on Carbon sequestration and NFT tokenization will further enhance the value in the climate ecosystem.
