United Citizens Organization launches as a blockchain initiative at COP26

A consortium of partners spoke during the COP26 conference about the inception of a new blockchain climate initiative and shared details on its future ambitions.

Speaking at a COP26 press conference in Glasgow, Scotland on Wednesday, a panoply of experts from the tech-environmental sector spoke to global citizens across the world about improving coordination and support for climate action with blockchain technology.

The GloCha United Citizens Organization (UCO) for Action for Climate Empowerment has been launched at COP26 as a blockchain-based quasi-international organization located in Klagenfurt, Austria. It will now seek to utilize blockchain technology to advance climate change objectives in alignment with the United Nation’s (U.N.’s) Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). 

The UCO is rooted in the Action for Climate Empowerment Innovation Project, or ACE_AT, as well as the Global Challenges Action Empowerment Consortium, or GloCha. It serves to facilitate open discussions about society’s collective vision for climate action and to empower large-scale resource mobilization.

GloCha has partnered with the U.N.’s Habitat Youth Programme and the Climate Chain Coalition, among others, to collaborate with youth climate groups to construct the technological and institutional infrastructure required to meet the U.N.’s SDGs through impact-oriented entrepreneurship models. 

Hosted by the GloCha founder Miroslav Polzer, panelists included Romi Sumaria, Dairou Sidiki, as well as Cointelegraph’s editor-in-chief Kristina Cornèr representing as a media partner of UCO, among others.

Co-founder & CEO of Oblique Life Romi Sumaria spoke about the opportunities for mobilizing financial and human capital towards climate change initiatives through the implementation of blockchain technology, stating:

“Blockchain will allow us to make sure those who are investing in these projects can understand where their money or time is going, exactly what the metric they are looking at are, and see what their return-on-impact (ROI) is.”

The organization’s roadmap outlines its objectives to publish a white paper report in late February 2022, followed by a registration offering in early April 2022.

Additional considerations include the distribution of carbon footprint compensations Cryptostamps, resource mobilization through decentralized autonomous organizations (DAOs) and support to several society engagement projects. 

UCO will work alongside respective governmental regimes to build these partnerships over the coming months, with expected deployment to commence at the COP27 hosted by the continent of Africa in November 2022.

The CEO of APCD Chad, and long-standing partner of GloCha, Dairou Sidiki, commented on the importance of engaging African citizens on issues concerning sustainable development as well as fostering the development of innovative solutions:

“We think that is an excellent idea to implement this partnership to fundraise and mobilize resources for climate action in Africa particularly, and also to take into consideration what Africans can have as solutions and help them implement these solutions on the ground.”

Related: Measuring success: Offsetting crypto carbon emissions necessary for adoption?

Over the duration of the COP26 conference, a number of thought leaders in both the environmental and crypto ecosystem have expressed valid concerns about the rising energy intensive activities on blockchain networks such as Bitcoin.

The leading digital asset has discouraged climate experts for its heavy reliance on fossil fuels to sustain the production of mining activities, a fundamental pillar of its establishment and operations.

Earlier this year, an expert research team at the University of Cambridge published the Bitcoin Electricity Consumption Index which calculated that Bitcoin consumes 121.36 terawatt-hours annually, a seismic figure which ranks above entire nations such as Argentina for energy consumption. 

A number of cryptocurrency firms intent on researching and developing solutions to decarbonize blockchain activities have also gained traction in recent months.

Jack Dorsey’s Square teamed up with Ark Invest this year to publicize a memorandum arguing that Bitcoin presents a unique opportunity to propel innovation in and the adoption of a green network grid powered solely by renewable energy sources.

What can fix this problem is an ecosystem where solar/wind, batteries, and bitcoin mining co-exist to form a green grid that runs almost exclusively on renewable energy. Not only is this doable, it is doable without jeopardizing the sector’s profitability.

— Square Crypto (@sqcrypto) April 21, 2021

Citing analytical data metrics such as the levelized cost of energy, or LCOE, and transmission capacity to determine the ease of transition towards green production, the report concluded:

“The Bitcoin and energy markets are converging and we believe the energy asset owners of today will likely become the miners of tomorrow.”