Feasibility Study: DLT for Emissions Trading Registries

SPR

5 May 2022

The German Environment Agency (UBA) commissioned the Frankfurt School Blockchain Center, Capgemini and Datarella to elaborate a feasibility study on the use of DLT in today’s emissions trading registries. Datarella is happy to announce its successful completion.

The aim was to evaluate whether the DLT is suited to efficiently represent the current European emissions trading system (EU ETS). The insights generated by the project partners will support policymakers in informed decision making with regards to the question of whether to remain with a traditional architecture or with a central relational database. For this purpose, the technical concept of an emissions trading DLT and the consideration of the efficiency and sustainability of an emissions trading DLT were explored. As a result, we were able to demonstrate how Emission Allowances can be represented on the blockchain. Hereby, the scope of an emissions trading system can be significantly expanded without extensively altering users’ current user experience .

As a key benefit, our DLT solution offers a robust infrastructure that is secure against manipulation attempts. Additionally, with DLT, well-known advantages such as transparency and traceability can be established in emission trading systems. Our concept also provides sustainable and energy-saving operability of a DLT-based emissions trading system.

The Frankfurt School Blockchain Center, as coordinator of the project, has contributed dedicated scientific blockchain expertise. Capgemini provided a rich set of expertise in carbon trading, registries, and private blockchain implementation. Datarella as a Web3 solution provider contributed comprehensive implementation expertise of enterprise blockchain solutions.

The result of the feasibility study was highly satisfactory for the client. In the future, the result will be presented to a larger circle of interested stakeholders.