The following is an open letter from ReFi organizations KlimaDAO, MOSS Earth, C3, and SCB Group:

Global warming is the most urgent challenge facing our planet—a crisis so severe that the United Nations declared in April that it is "now or never" to act to accomplish the 1.5-degree pathway necessary to avert the worst effects of climate change.  

One of the most promising innovations to combat global warming is carbon markets that provide market incentives for entities to reduce their carbon footprint, while funding projects that decrease emissions or remove greenhouse gasses from the atmosphere. We believe the existing market to buy and sell carbon offsets - called the Voluntary Carbon Market (VCM) - can greatly benefit from the transparency and efficiency improvements which blockchain technology affords, including accelerating the flow of finance to high-impact carbon reduction and mitigation projects

The good news is that through blockchain technology, open, liquid markets have been built by a growing group of Regenerative Finance (ReFi) organizations that bring price transparency and access to the exchange of carbon credits—a major breakthrough that can place the VCM at the forefront of the fight to save our planet. To date, over $200 million has flowed into ReFi protocols - a substantial amount of capital and corresponding carbon offsets, with an active community of supporters, developers, and investors helping pave the way for continued growth. 

In May, Verra—a major carbon credit standards certifier—announced it was suspending blockchain and crypto tokenization and suggested that they would be focusing on a "closed, proprietary system" for the exchange of credits, rather than working with the ReFi community on the solutions provided by open, transparent, blockchain-enabled markets. While Verra pledged to open a public consultation process within 7-10 days of May 26, it has now been 29 days and the consultation process is still yet to begin. 

The ReFi community is disappointed that Verra has not opened their consultation process. It is imperative that this public consultation process be opened immediately and that collaboration with the ReFi industry is prioritized, as we have no time to waste in saving our planet.

We stand ready to participate in this public consultation process and call on Verra to give ReFi projects an opportunity to showcase the numerous and proven advantages of climate-positive public blockchains for hosting the carbon market. 

###

Media Contact
Natacha Rousseau
press@klimadao.finance
(323) 352-6417

About KlimaDAO

KlimaDAO is a decentralized autonomous organization (DAO) designed to bring the innovations, efficiency, transparency, and global reach of decentralized finance (DeFi) to the carbon market. KlimaDAO has created tooling for tokenized carbon offset retirements, on-chain carbon liquidity incentivization, and on-chain carbon market insights. To learn more, visit KlimaDAO.finance.

About MOSS Earth

MOSS is a climate tech company focused on environmental services with global operations. In 2020, it created the first carbon credit-backed token, MCO2, used to offset greenhouse gases, having already sent more than $30 million USD to the Amazon, which has helped to preserve approximately 800 million trees. The MCO2 token is listed on platforms including Coinbase, Gemini, Mercado Bitcoin, and others. For more information, visit moss.earth.

About C3

C3 was formed by the leading DeFi carbon market players to catalyze the carbon market's expansion, increase bandwidth between the traditional and DeFi carbon markets, and develop innovative means for delivering finance toward high-impact carbon mitigation and removal projects. You can learn more about C3 here: https://www.c3.app/

About SCB

SCB Group is a world-leading, low-carbon commodity group relentlessly pursuing a low-carbon future. They work with the whole value chain of the voluntary carbon space, helping to fund projects in the least developed and developing countries. SCB helps corporates and end users to shape their sustainability strategy while sourcing carbon solutions in line with their goals and requirements. For more information, visit https://starcb.com/.