BEF Limited

Date de soumission 6 décembre 2020 Fondateurs Michael Davies

Le projet en détails

NB : cette fiche est intégralement remplie par les personnes proposant l’innovation.

Quel est le problème résolu ?

Problem Overview: The voluntary carbon markets offer an effective mechanism to drive private investment into nature-based solutions and ecosystem restoration, however it, like many nature-based markets, has flaws which prevents it from scaling and reaching its full potential. In order for the voluntary carbon market to operate it is reliant on the following components: 1) Registries: where emission reduction project developers record project data, issue, transfer and retire carbon credits. At present, existing registries are disaggregated, siloed and are largely reliant on manual user updates, ultimately increasing the risk of double counting of carbon credits. 2) Intermediaries: the transaction of carbon credits by emission reduction project developers is heavily reliant upon intermediaries and OTC transactions. This reduce carbon credit provenance auditability and raises the cost of transactions, disproportionally impacting the emission reduction project developers. 3) Climate finance: is required by the emission reduction project developers to fund the projects that generate carbon credits. At present there is a significant gap in climate finance for small project developers and communities, raising barriers to entry. Unless these infrastructural challenges are address, these markets will not be able to scale and reach their potential towards climate action. BEF develops solutions to address these core challenges in order to enable the scaling of the voluntary carbon market, and other nature-based asset markets. BEF is designing an infrastructure that enables interoperability between registries, the peer-to-peer transactions of carbon credits, and the finance of community-led emission reduction projects, all on one platform.

Comment est-il résolu ?

BEF develops solutions to address these core challenges in order to enable the scaling of the voluntary carbon market, and other nature-based asset markets. BEF is designing an infrastructure that enables interoperability between registries, the peer-to-peer transactions of carbon credits, and the finance of community-led emission reduction projects, all on one platform. BEF’s Platform comprises : 1) Registry (Launched) The BEF Registry enables emission reduction project developers to record project data and issue their carbon credits on our Blockchain. It is the first fully operational Registry of its kind and enables unparalleled carbon credit transparency, auditability, whilst providing the foundation for new innovations which address the problems associated with intermediaries and climate finance. The main customer base for the BEF Registry will be voluntary carbon standards and government bodies responsible for climate action – the BEF Registry can also be used as a national carbon registry. There is a growing demand for international carbon pricing with growing social and political pressures creating the opportunity for BEF to position itself as the Registry of choice mandated by Government bodies and Carbon Standards. BEF is in the process of approaching both Voluntary Carbon Standards and government bodies globally to explore the adoption of the BEF Registry. The main userbase of BEF’s Registry service will be emission reduction project developers, whilst the adoption of the BEF registry would be mandated by Government bodies and Carbon Standards, it will be the project developers who will be responsible for paying the annual fee associated with BEF Registry Service. Looking forward, we plan to work with competing Registry providers to implement our blockchain technology, at little to no cost. We understand there is a wider opportunity to change how the voluntary carbon market operates creating interoperability between services. If more Registry providers implement BEFs backend technology, the potential customer base for BEFs additional services will increase substantially. 2) Marketplace (In Development) The BEF Peer-to-Peer Marketplace, will integrate with the BEF registry and other competing registries which have implemented BEF’s technology. This solution will enable project developers to sell their carbon credits worldwide without the need for intermediaries or brokers. Carbon credits can be sold either through a fixed-price listing or through auctions. Transactions will utilise smart contracts that automatically manage user balances without the need for human intervention and at a significantly lower cost for sellers (compared with existing solutions or brokers). Any transaction that occurs on the BEF marketplace will automatically be updated and recorded on the associated Registry, ensuring buyers have complete transparency of carbon credit provenance. It also removes the manual effort currently executed by Project developers which is prone to human error. The primary customers for this service include emission project developers (sellers), organisations interested in offsetting their carbon footprint (buyers) and carbon traders (buyers and sellers). 3) Micro Green Bonds: MGBs (In Development) MGBs are a new financial instrument developed by BEF designed to fill the current gap in climate finance and democratise access to funding for project developers and communities worldwide. MGBs are tradeable, fungible tokens that are issued by emission reduction project developers. In exchange bond holders are guaranteed a percentage of the carbon credits generated from the project. This enables organisations to directly fund a project and receive a share of the units generated. Once received, these carbon credits can either be sold on our Marketplace or retired for offsetting purposes. The primary customers for this service include emission project developers (sellers), organisations interested in offsetting their carbon footprint (buyers) and carbon traders (buyers and sellers).

Qui sont les clients potentiels ?

Indigenous Communities, NGOs, and organisations interested in offsetting their carbon footprint

En quoi cette solution est-elle différente ?

There is currently no offering in the carbon markets that provides Registry, Marketplace and Financing services all in one platform. Not only is our offering completely unique, but our technology is the most advanced in the market; our solution utilise Blockchain technology enabling unparalleled levels of transparency, auditability, and efficiency. Alongside this, our Registry’s modular design means we can customise the platform for customers at rapid pace, getting them up and running within days. In comparison, existing registries take several weeks if not months to configure prior to launch. Not only is our technology the most advanced in the market, but Micro-Green Bonds are a completely new financial instrument that has been designed and developed by BEF. This service will enable carbon credit/offset buyers to directly invest in emission reduction projects and also trade their Micro-Green Bonds on a secondary market. The marketplace will also offer project developers an opportunity to sell their carbon credits globally with greater ease and without the need for escrow accounts or intermediaries; our smart contracts enable sellers and buyers to transact with one another peer-to-peer.