The net emissions data channel is a data channel representing the net emissions of an entity, which could be an organization, a building, or even a person. It is the sum of all the emissions from different channels such as the utility emissions channel, plus offsetting Renewable Energy Certificates and carbon offsets. It could be on a public or permissioned ledger network. The net emissions could be recorded as tokens or Fabric assets, such as the Carbon Emissions tokens developed by the Interwork Alliance. The tokens/assets should be issued by the auditors who are members of the network, on behalf of their customers which could be utilities, businesses, or individuals.
Note that the carbon emissions token is a fungible token, whereas data on the utility emissions channel are non-fungible, as they represent the emissions from a particular meter tied to a particular utility during a particular period of time. This is a common feature of transforming non-fungible data into fungible tokens and could be handled in the same way as securitizing mortgage loans into mortgage-backed securities, bundling stocks into exchange traded funds, and other financial structures. The non-fungible data, such as the utility emissions records, should be updated to link to the particular fungible token. The fungible token should contain a manifest of all the non-fungible data which went into it.
The only operation for a net emissions token/asset is Issue with the following fields:
- issuer identifier
- recipient identifier
- asset type
- quantity
- UOM
- from date/time stamp
- thru date/time stamp
- metadata
- manifest
- date/time stamp of when the asset was created
Once issued from one entity to another, the token/asset stays with the recipient. The recipient can in turn issue tokens/assets to further recipients, such as down the supply chain, by referencing its original tokens/assets in the manifest of the new token/asset issued.
Examples of these tokens/assets include:
- Renewable Energy Certificate:
- Issuer ID = Generator of REC
- Recipient ID = Buyer of REC
- Asset Type = REC
- Quantity = 1
- UOM = MWH
- From/thru date time stamp = do we need this for REC's?
- Metadata = Region and Time of energy enerated
- Manifest = URL linking to the registration for the REC purchased
- Carbon emissions offest:
- Issuer ID = Certifier or Issuer
- Recipient ID = Buyer
- Asset Type = Emissions Offset
- Quantity = amount
- UOM = MtCO2e
- From/thru date time stamp = do we need this for emissions offset?
- Metadata = type of project, location, etc.
- Manifest = URL linking to the registration of the emissions offset
- Utility Emissions Data:
- Issuer ID = utility or auditor
- Recipient ID = organization or entity
- Asset Type = CO2 emissions
- Quantity = amount of emissions
- UOM = MtCO2e
- From/thru date time stamp = time period of the net emissions
- Meatadata = background data such as utility, billing period, amount and UOM of usage, etc.
- Manifest = link to access the utility emissions data on the utility emissions channel
- Net Emissions Data:
- Issuer ID = auditor
- Recipient ID = organization or entity
- Asset Type = CO2 emissions
- Quantity = amount of emissions
- UOM = MtCO2e
- Metadata =
- From/thru date time stamp = time period of the net emissions
- Manifest = links to access all the emissions tokens/assets used to prepare this net emissions
Each token/asset represents either an emissions debt, which you incur through activities that emit greenhouse gases, or an emissions credit, which offset the debt by removing emissions from the atmosphere.
With these tokens/assets, we can calculate the net emissions by first subtracting the effect of Renewable Energy Certificates (REC's.) REC's offset the energy produced by non-renewable sources, so we'll need to get the non-renewable vs renewable energy mix in the original emissions tokens/assets from utility emissions data channel. Then we subtract the offsets to get the net emissions.
The tokens/assets stay on the ledger forever, or at least as long as greenhouse gases stay in the atmosphere (hundreds of years at least.)
