The Scotcoin Project Community Interest Company (CIC) has launched a new initiative allowing individuals and businesses to offset their carbon footprint.
It aims to encourage Scottish companies and citizens to offset their carbon by providing a discount to those who pay with Scotcoin (SCOT), while also accepting payments in pounds sterling.
Individuals can purchase a single tonne of carbon for as little as £20 through different packages available through Scotcoin Carbon Offset – 10 tonnes would cover the average carbon consumption for a person each year.
One tonne of carbon is roughly equal to the carbon consumption of sending 25,000 emails, drinking 1,818 lattes, or driving 5,555 kilometres in a petrol car.
Scotland is aiming to reach net zero emissions by 2045, with the latest figures available from the Scottish Government showing that Scotland’s total carbon footprint reached 70.4 million tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent (CO2e) during 2018 – up 2.6% on the previous year, but down by nearly a third on 1998.
Earlier this year, the Scotcoin Project CIC achieved carbon neutral status by offsetting 100 tonnes of CO2e through investment in a project delivered by the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) Adaption Fund, which seeks to reduce the emissions of harmful greenhouse gases.
Scotcoin is believed to be the world’s only purpose-driven cryptocurrency, with environmental and social aims at its core. Its CIC supports a range of charitable and environmental projects that boost Scotland’s ambitions for a greener and fairer society.
Chief executive Temple Melville said: “While offsetting is not the only answer, carbon emissions are an inevitable result of many of the things people do in day-to-day life and in the way businesses operate.
“We have the flexibility to sell single tonne quantities, which means even individuals can offset what they produce in a year through activities like sending emails or drinking coffee if they want to proactively do more for the planet.
“The climate crisis remains the biggest challenge society faces and we hope that our carbon initiative, via Scotcoin Carbon Offset, will incentivise more people and businesses to do as much as they can to help us reach net zero.”
Scotland’s first and only cryptocurrency is actively building a network of organisations that will trade locally in Scotcoin, and in turn, support the project’s mission. Target industries include those with significant issues of over-supply or waste, where goods and services can be diverted to people in need, and in green issues such as carbon capture.
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