Joseph Pallant, Founder and executive director of the Blockchain for Climate Foundation
Ecotrust Canada's climate innovation director, Joseph Pallant, is also the founder and executive director of the Blockchain for Climate Foundation. Pallant's long-standing interest in carbon markets and climate change began in college, when he earned a Bachelor of Science in biology and environmental studies from the University of Victoria. He also holds an MBA from the INSEEC School of Business and Economics, as well as a post-graduate diploma in Latin American management from Capilano College's McRae Institute of International Management.
Pallant has been involved in the environmental movement and the carbon market as a frequent speaker at various international conferences since 2004, often providing strategy and project development advice across business, public, and non-profit enterprises. Pallant pioneered the development of first-of-their-kind carbon offset programs in forestry, fuel switching, and transportation. He also launched CPS Carbon Project Solutions Inc., an environmental finance firm that assists organizations in developing and monetizing climate change projects.
According to Pallant, he first learned about blockchain in 2017 and decided to put “the Paris Agreement on the blockchain,” establishing the Blockchain for Climate Foundation, a nonprofit organization advocating for the use of blockchain to help connect the world’s national carbon accounts so that carbon emissions reductions can be traded. Pallant also serves as the climate innovation director at Ecotrust Canada, a non-profit and charity that works with rural, isolated, and Indigenous communities to create an economy that includes clean energy, sustainable housing, regulated fisheries, and a healthy environment.
“There is a lot of hope that digital monitoring, reporting, and verification (dMRV) will make climate action more cost-effective, knowable, and proven.”
Joseph has spoken at COP27 in Sharm El Sheikh in Egypt. The Innovation Hub has been a real boon for the climate-focused blockchain and emergent technology communities to share his and his teams’ work to the broader UN climate community.
He recently spoke about the work that Ecotrust Canada and Evercity are undertaking in the area of climate innovation to automate the early stages of offset project development and remove obstacles to entry into the carbon market. A co-developed mechanism for community involvement on Project Idea Note creation and an online version of the Forest Carbon Community Toolkit are two things Joseph was excited to introduce.
Here you can watch the latest interview of Joseph Pallant:
2022
Pallant is expected to continue working on the BITMO Platform, which will enable and facilitate cross-border collaboration on climate change concerns in general, and emissions reductions in particular. Pallant believes that developing technologies like blockchain and NFTs can assist address modern environmental concerns by lessening the harmful influence of human factors on the climate.
The so-called “great flight” of crypto miners from mainland China to North America occurred in 2021. Pallant’s personal efforts in reducing carbon dioxide emissions and promoting green energy for the space may have a greater impact, given that a large number of crypto miners are now located in North America, given that last year was important for the crypto community’s awareness of the nature of Bitcoin’s and other cryptocurrencies’ energy sources.
AI-powered chatbots and image generators are becoming increasingly popular, but their energy consumption is a concern. Generative AI, which creates complex outputs, requires more energy to build, causing a carbon footprint. Researchers are exploring energy-efficient approaches, such as using specialized hardware. ChatGPT, a model released by OpenAI, has a higher carbon footprint than GPT3. However, large generative AI models are expected to remain, and renewable energy sources could help reduce energy use. The public can use data on AI models’ carbon footprints to choose a “greener” chatbot.
