Sharjah: A research team from the American University of Sharjah (AUS) has submitted a preliminary patent to the United States Patent and Trademark Office for a blockchain system they created to enhance the carbon credits trading (CCT) market.
Through a marketplace, CCT facilitates the purchase and sale of credits that let businesses or other entities emit a specific quantity of carbon dioxide. Emissions are capped by governments, and corporations that don’t meet those limitations can sell their extra credits to those who do. In the end, CCT helps businesses fight climate change by encouraging them to invest in cleaner technology and cut back on carbon emissions.
The AUS team’s new blockchain system automates several processes, including participant registration, credit generation, trading and monitoring, and carbon emission measurement, to alleviate the shortcomings and difficulties of the existing CCT platforms. These enhancements will contribute to the assurance of operations and data records’ legitimacy, immutability, and transparency.
“This innovation streamlines the carbon credit trading process and offers significant benefits such as reducing operational costs, processing time and mitigating risks associated with double-spending and lack of transparency, which current CCT systems face. It also aligns with the United Nations’ goal of combating climate change by enabling governments to leverage CCT effectively. It empowers countries and organizations to track and monitor greenhouse gas emissions, facilitating carbon credit trading while also aiding in developing strategies to control and reduce emissions,” said Dr. Malick Ndiaye, Professor in Industrial Engineering and research lead.
The technique took four years to create, and it was done so only at AUS’s College of Engineering (CEN), with full assistance from Dr. Alia Al Sadawi, a full-time PhD student, and an AUS Faculty Research Grant. AUS is now doing a prototype phase of some of the research to finish a case study on real-time carbon emission measuring and monitoring. The Sharjah Entrepreneurship Centre is also supporting this new phase of growth.
To acquire outside finance and solid commercial relationships for the technology’s future extension and scalability, the research team is collaborating with the AUS Technology Transfer Office.
Driven by a heterogeneous group of academics, researchers, and students, AUS carries out innovative studies in several fields, tackling urgent worldwide issues and expanding comprehension for the enhancement of the community.