Single.Earth to replace carbon credits in the blockchain

Single.Earth founders Andrus Aaslaid and Merit Valdsalu

With the future of blockchain-based carbon credits uncertain, Estonian company Single.Earth, backed by EQT, has launched a new standard for biodiversity and carbon credits.

TALLINN, ESTONIA, Aug. 3, 2022 /EINPresswire.com/ — Estonian EQT-backed company Single.Earth has launched a new standard for biodiversity and carbon credits, coming out of stealth mode with its science platform.

With an international team of more than 20 interdisciplinary scientists, including ecologists, environmental scientists and physicists, the company has focused on sorting out the gaps in today’s carbon credits.

More importantly, the team addressed questions about biodiversity loss and why net-zero policies still result in mass extinction, albeit perhaps on a slightly less overheated planet.

“At some point, we understood that conventional carbon credits would not save the planet. The climate, perhaps. The biosphere – no! said Single.Earth CEO and Founder Merit Valdsalu.

On May 25, Verra, the operator of the world’s largest carbon credits program, banned the creation of instruments or tokens based on retired carbon credits and said it was evaluating the future of tokenizations of its credits. . On May 30, the American Carbon Registry (ACR) prohibited the tokenization of ACR carbon offset credits, unless explicitly authorized by the ACR.

Single.Earth created the MERIT token for the crypto market. The token creates new opportunities to rapidly and transparently slow down deforestation on a global scale. It provides market access for nature-based services to small landowners for whom the voluntary carbon market is out of reach.

Born as a blockchain token, it was designed from the start as a scientific instrument, reflecting the value of nature in a way compatible with the Web3 world and attracting the interest of innovative companies and crypto-savvy private investors.

“We have created a digital twin of nothing less than a planet that reflects the ecosystem service value of every parcel of land on earth,” said Andrus Aaslaid, CTO and co-founder of Single.Earth.

“We are now one of the few companies that knows how many forests there are on the planet and how much carbon these forests are sequestering at any given time. That’s a good start. That’s enough to start trading with the outcome of these patterns and having the people who ‘own’ the trees and the species need to be rewarded to be good stewards of them,” he said.

Single.Earth claims that its token can replace conventional carbon instruments and the voluntary market by looking at the world more holistically and considering species and habitats in addition to carbon.

“Nature is continually changing – we cannot address the climate crisis without considering biodiversity loss, and vice versa. We need to view nature and its ecosystems as an interconnected and multidimensional system,” said Donalda Karnauskaite, head of research at Unique.Terre.

“Our growing appetite for timber and agriculture has put the planet in a very difficult position. Planting new trees to offset carbon emissions will not save us money if we continue to destroy the forests and lands that sustain us. today”, concluded Merit Valdsalu.

Single.Earth was founded by Merit Valdsalu and Andrus Aaslaid in late 2019 with a mission to protect nature, starting with making saving forests as profitable for landowners as cutting them down. Investors in the company include Pipedrive founders EQT Ventures, Icebreaker.VC, Ragnar Sass and Martin Henk.

Tarmo Virki
Unique.Earth
+372 564 4562
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