Could a carbon credit-backed digital currency help us fight climate change?
euronews.comImagine if you could save the planet every time you spend money.
A Swiss-South African start-up has launched Toco, a digital currency which is backed by carbon credits.
The currency can be used to pay for goods or transfer them to another account. Users can “retire” their Tocos to permanently lock away the corresponding carbon certificates to offset their own carbon emissions.
Its developers say it is already accepted at some 50 shops and cafes in Switzerland and Denmark.
Carbon credits represent the removal or reduction of one metric ton of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, with every toco representing that. For example, one Toco is currently about €26.
“We designed this initiative so that it can be a transactional currency so that we can use it on a day-to-day basis,” Paul Rowett, co-founder of Toco, told Euronews Next.
“We specifically chose that route so we could create consistent demand in the carbon markets so that the magic of an individual going and paying for their lunch in Toco and creating demand for decarbonisation is quite a magical concept,” Rowett added.
He believes the novel monetary system is a solution for climate change that doesn’t compromise economic growth.
“The problem that causes climate change is inherently built into our economic system as economies grow,” Rowett said.
“Carbon emissions are built into our economic system and we don't pay for them. It's free to emit. And economic growth in our capitalist world is fundamentally important,” Rowett added.
When users purchase Toco with traditional currency, the Carbon Reserve, a non-profit foundation chaired by the currency’s founders and based in Switzerland, uses these funds to buy carbon removal certificates from projects like forests, renewable
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