We are creating some awesome events for you. Kindly bear with us.

Blockchain’s potential in tackling climate change

The buzz surrounding distributed ledger technology, commonly known as blockchain, is usually about being the future of financial and legal transactions.

But aside from the two, blockchain also has the potential to help tackle a far trickier problem, which is climate change.

According to a recent report, a blockchain expert from the University of Technology Sydney Law has been championing this idea at a special United Nations (UN) Session in Geneva, Switzerland.

This year’s International Organisation for Standardisation (ISO) Week was attended by more than 600 people representing 160 countries.

UN was invited to listen to a series of presentations about how standards are supporting innovation to address some of the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

The expert presented on the possible uses of blockchain technology in sustainability and climate action. The session focused specifically on SDG 13, which is to take urgent action to combat climate change and its impacts.

One of the challenges is to help developing countries meet their increasing demand for electricity without adopting high emission solutions and that is where blockchain steps in.

Industrialised and developed countries are heavily dependent on high emission electricity production. An example would be Australia.

Disrupting the country’s way of producing electricity in order to reduce emissions is challenging because the incumbent industries, infrastructure, systems and processes are significant contributors to the economy.

On the other hand, demand for electricity in the developing world is increasing but there is little or no existing infrastructure. This presents the opportunity to adopt a cleaner more sustainable approach from the beginning.

With solar panels, communities and villages will be able to generate, store and use their own energy. The whole system can then be managed securely using blockchain technology.

Micro-transactive grids involve a limited number of participants with each dwelling or household producing solar powered energy.

It would then be bought and sold between the participants according to needs at different times.  In order for this to work effectively, there must be trust in the system.

Everyone in the grid community must be able to trust the ledgers that record how much energy is generated, stored, bought and sold within and across the network, since there is no central controller or regulator of the system.

With blockchain, the technology will provide a transparent, auditable and automated market trading and clearing mechanism for the benefit of producers and consumers.

Moreover, communities wherein everyone does not have a bank count will be supported. Settlement of debits and credits can take place at an agreed time according to the local accepted traditions or trade conventions.

While complexity, cost and reputation have been the main obstacles to blockchain adoption, standards can help to address all three of these barriers.

At a time when global trust in government, banking, the media and other powerful institutions has slumped, blockchain can play a significant role in democratising new more trustworthy business networks.

These new economic models can be exemplars for how blockchain technology might help achieve some of the SDGs.

PARTNER

Qlik’s vision is a data-literate world, where everyone can use data and analytics to improve decision-making and solve their most challenging problems. A private company, Qlik offers real-time data integration and analytics solutions, powered by Qlik Cloud, to close the gaps between data, insights and action. By transforming data into Active Intelligence, businesses can drive better decisions, improve revenue and profitability, and optimize customer relationships. Qlik serves more than 38,000 active customers in over 100 countries.

PARTNER

CTC Global Singapore, a premier end-to-end IT solutions provider, is a fully owned subsidiary of ITOCHU Techno-Solutions Corporation (CTC) and ITOCHU Corporation.

Since 1972, CTC has established itself as one of the country’s top IT solutions providers. With 50 years of experience, headed by an experienced management team and staffed by over 200 qualified IT professionals, we support organizations with integrated IT solutions expertise in Autonomous IT, Cyber Security, Digital Transformation, Enterprise Cloud Infrastructure, Workplace Modernization and Professional Services.

Well-known for our strengths in system integration and consultation, CTC Global proves to be the preferred IT outsourcing destination for organizations all over Singapore today.

PARTNER

Planview has one mission: to build the future of connected work. Our solutions enable organizations to connect the business from ideas to impact, empowering companies to accelerate the achievement of what matters most. Planview’s full spectrum of Portfolio Management and Work Management solutions creates an organizational focus on the strategic outcomes that matter and empowers teams to deliver their best work, no matter how they work. The comprehensive Planview platform and enterprise success model enables customers to deliver innovative, competitive products, services, and customer experiences. Headquartered in Austin, Texas, with locations around the world, Planview has more than 1,300 employees supporting 4,500 customers and 2.6 million users worldwide. For more information, visit www.planview.com.

SUPPORTING ORGANISATION

SIRIM is a premier industrial research and technology organisation in Malaysia, wholly-owned by the Minister​ of Finance Incorporated. With over forty years of experience and expertise, SIRIM is mandated as the machinery for research and technology development, and the national champion of quality. SIRIM has always played a major role in the development of the country’s private sector. By tapping into our expertise and knowledge base, we focus on developing new technologies and improvements in the manufacturing, technology and services sectors. We nurture Small Medium Enterprises (SME) growth with solutions for technology penetration and upgrading, making it an ideal technology partner for SMEs.

PARTNER

HashiCorp provides infrastructure automation software for multi-cloud environments, enabling enterprises to unlock a common cloud operating model to provision, secure, connect, and run any application on any infrastructure. HashiCorp tools allow organizations to deliver applications faster by helping enterprises transition from manual processes and ITIL practices to self-service automation and DevOps practices. 

PARTNER

IBM is a leading global hybrid cloud and AI, and business services provider. We help clients in more than 175 countries capitalize on insights from their data, streamline business processes, reduce costs and gain the competitive edge in their industries. Nearly 3,000 government and corporate entities in critical infrastructure areas such as financial services, telecommunications and healthcare rely on IBM’s hybrid cloud platform and Red Hat OpenShift to affect their digital transformations quickly, efficiently and securely. IBM’s breakthrough innovations in AI, quantum computing, industry-specific cloud solutions and business services deliver open and flexible options to our clients. All of this is backed by IBM’s legendary commitment to trust, transparency, responsibility, inclusivity and service.

Send this to a friend