KENYA – Africa’s first verifiable emissions reduction platform, which uses a public decentralised ledger to track emission reductions, will start trading its first tokens this quarter.
The platform, known as CYNK, will use the Hedera Hashgraph ledger, and trade tokens generated by Tamuwa, Kenya’s largest biomass company.
It is also in talks to trade emissions reductions credits from a company that plans to practice regenerative agriculture on 50 000 ha of land in the East African country and a blue carbon project, reports Bloomberg.
“CYNK is now partnering with several new emissions reductions and sequestration projects,” the company said in a statement.
Emissions reductions credits are a way for companies and projects that reduce greenhouse gas emissions that would have otherwise occurred through their business or environmental practices to generate more income.
Tamuwa, which founded CYNK, produces biomass briquettes from waste known as bagasse that comes from sugar milling operations in Kenya.
Bagasse emits methane if left to rot. Its emissions credits will initially be tradable on CYNK but it also plans to have them attain Gold Standard certification next year.
Gold Standard is a program for verification of non-governmental emission reductions projects.
CYNK was set up with money from the HBAR Foundation’s Sustainable Impact Fund of more than US$100-million, which was announced in March.
The foundation was set up by the Hedera Governing Council, which includes representatives from Boeing Co, Standard Bank Group and other companies.
Companies across the globe have increasingly raised their antennas towards identifying how their operations and activities might impact the environment.
To this end, the likes of South African Breweries, recently launched its first environmental, social and governance (ESG) strategy.
Under the strategy the beverage giant seeks to turn attention to climate action; water stewardship; entrepreneurship; diversity and inclusion; circular packaging; smart agriculture; responsible consumption; and ethics and transparency.
In a bid to cut its emissions, the company has so far put in place a number of projects including solarizing all seven of its breweries, having on-site biogas plant at its Alrode brewery and signing a power purchase agreement for off-site biogas with biogas company Bio2Watt.
The off-site biogas plant will use manure from one of South Africa’s largest dairy farms, with a mix of other organic wastes, to produce renewable energy.
The electricity will be supplied to SAB from the Cape Dairy Biogas Plant, through the national grid, once it reaches commercial operation.
With the initiative already put in place, South African Breweries can be a suitable candidate for the CYNK trading platform.
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