Advertisement
Opinion | Carbon credits are a greener alternative to bitcoin, the climate doomsday machine
- While bitcoin comes with an enormous carbon footprint, carbon credits serve as both a store of value and a benefit to humanity
- By allocating part of their portfolio to carbon credits, investors can fund climate projects, improve air quality and aid forest-dependent communities
Reading Time:3 minutes
Why you can trust SCMP
2
The “doomsday machine” has a colourful history in popular culture and science fiction. We now have a dangerous case of life imitating art in bitcoin, which uses as much energy as its price can justify. As the price rises, more miners bring more power-hungry and powerful computers that use more energy.
That design of bitcoin, intentionally or not, has driven mining to use as much power per year as Sweden or London. The higher the price, the higher the power use. Theoretically, if the price keeps rising, bitcoin mining could consume most of the energy production on the planet.
While fossil fuel energy use and its associated carbon emissions have become a planetary problem, it has always had a social purpose – to provide food, warmth, shelter and mobility. Bitcoin does none of this; rather, it comes with an enormous carbon footprint. In today’s climate emergency, fossil fuel use must directly deliver social benefits to justify the damage to our climate and planet.
Advertisement
While cryptocurrency might ultimately be regulated for national monetary policy concerns, climate concerns should compel us to abandon or fix the climate doomsday machine that bitcoin has become.
Some might defend bitcoin’s big footprint by pointing to mining operations in renewable energy havens such as Iceland. Unfortunately, Iceland is not the locus for the bulk of bitcoin mining.
01:07
Chinese police seize 4,000 bitcoin-mining computers that illegally tapped US$3 million worth of electricity
Chinese police seize 4,000 bitcoin-mining computers that illegally tapped US$3 million worth of electricity
Rather, it is China, the US, Russia, Kazakhstan and Iran that account for 90 per cent of all bitcoin mining. All but Iran are in the top 20 countries for coal use, and all but Kazakhstan are in the top 20 for oil consumption.
Advertisement
Advertisement
Select Voice
Choose your listening speed
Get through articles 2x faster
1.25x
250 WPM
Slow
Average
Fast
1.25x