The United Arab Emirates (UAE) plans to launch a national registration system for carbon credits based on blockchain. The Ministry of Climate Change and Environment (MoCCAE) has signed a deal with the Industrial Innovation Group to develop the solution using the Venom public blockchain infrastructure.
“As the UAE prepares to host COP28 in November, the country is striving to double its efforts and showcase its inspiring experience to the world in addressing climate change by reducing carbon emissions across different sectors,” said Mariam bint Mohammed Almheiri, the MoCCAE minister. She also said the country planned to commit to cutting emissions by 40% which is 9% more than its previous commitment.
The UAE has embraced blockchain and launched several systems using the technology. Banks use a shared Know Your Customer platform and some of the same institutions also use the UAE Trade Connect blockchain for trade finance.
Both Dubai and Abu Dhabi have blockchain and crypto centers. In Dubai it’s the Dubai Multi Commodities Centre (DMCC) Crypto Centre and there’s the Abu Dhabi Global Market (ADGM).
The DMCC operates another registry, the DMCC Tradeflow platform that centralizes the transfer for commodities pledged as collateral. By having a single registry it helps to reduce fraud from people who try to raise capital multiple times on the same collateral.
DMCC Tradeflow was then used by others including the DigitalSugar trading platform launched by Al Khaleej Sugar.
The UAE is also active in digital currency as part of MBridge, the cross border central bank digital currency (CBDC) initiative that includes the central banks of Thailand, Hong Kong and China. Additionally, it is exploring cross border CBDC with India and investigating the launch of its own retail and wholesale CBDCs.
