Joseph Pallant #67

Founder and executive director of the Blockchain for Climate Foundation

Joseph Pallant & Founder and executive director of the Blockchain for Climate Foundation & background` Joseph Pallant & Founder and executive director of the Blockchain for Climate Foundation & poster`
Joseph Pallant & Founder and executive director of the Blockchain for Climate Foundation
Category Environment
person-quote
If we could put the Paris Agreement on the blockchain and operationalize Article 6 (the carbon trading aspects) of this international agreement, that would be the killer app for blockchain, vis a vis climate.

Biography:

Joseph Pallant is the climate innovation director at Ecotrust Canada and founder and executive director of the Blockchain for Climate Foundation. Pallant’s long-running focus on carbon markets and climate change started at college at the University of Victoria, from which graduated with a Bachelor of Science in biology and environmental studies. He also received an MBA from the INSEEC School of Business and Economics and a post-graduate diploma in Latin American management from the McRae Institute of International Management at Capilano College.

Pallant has been active in the environmental movement and carbon market since 2004 as a frequent speaker at various international conferences, regularly providing strategic and project development expertise across private, public and NGO endeavors. Being a pioneer in shaping Canada’s carbon market, Pallant developed first-of-its-kind carbon offset projects in forestry, fuel switching and transportation. He also founded CPS Carbon Project Solutions Inc., an environmental finance company that helps organizations develop and monetize projects that counter climate change.

According to Pallant, he first read about blockchain in 2017 and he decided to put “the Paris Agreement on the blockchain,” founding Blockchain for Climate Foundation, a nonprofit group advocating for using blockchain to help connect the world’s national carbon accounts to trade carbon emissions reductions. Pallant is also the climate innovation director at Ecotrust Canada, a nonprofit and charity that works with rural, remote and Indigenous communities to build an economy that provides clean energy, sustainable housing, managed fisheries and a healthy environment.

Pallant’s 2021:

Pallant’s biggest achievement of 2021 is connected to the 26th United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP26), during which the Blockchain for Climate Foundation announced the launch of its BITMO Platform, an innovative tool to help countries achieve their climate goals. The BITMO Platform was created to advance Article 6 of the Paris Agreement — focused on promoting sustainable development and environmental integrity — and use blockchain technology to bring forward a more effective, efficient global carbon market. It allows signatories to the Paris Agreement to issue and exchange carbon credits deployed on the Ethereum blockchain as ERC-1155 nonfungible tokens. Each token represents one metric ton of CO2, and the relevant carbon credit data is embedded in the NFT.

Pallant’s 2022:

Pallant is expected to keep working on the BITMO Platform, enabling and easing cross-border collaboration on climate change challenges in general and emissions reductions in particular. Pallant’s vision is that emerging technologies, such as blockchain and NFTs, can help address contemporary environmental challenges, reducing the negative impact of human factors on the climate.

In 2021, there was a so-called “great exodus” of crypto miners from mainland China to North America. And since last year was important for the crypto community’s awareness of the nature of Bitcoin’s and other cryptocurrencies’ energy sources, Pallant’s personal efforts in reducing carbon dioxide emissions and promoting green energy for the space might have a greater impact, given that a large number of crypto miners are now located in North America.