Toward a distributed carbon ledger for carbon emissions trading and accounting for corporate carbon management

Greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions control requires coordinated efforts and collaboration at all levels of governmental bodies, non-for-profit organizations, and private sectors. However, the target is difficult to achieve due to challenges arising from conflicts of interest and lack of trust between stakeholders. Thus, we propose a distributed carbon ledger (DCL) system using blockchain technology. Our analysis suggests that the adoption of DCL not only strengthens the corporate accounting system for carbon asset management but also fits within existing market-based emissions trading schemes (ETSs). Blockchain-enabled DCL allows the integration of national emission trading schemes (ETSs) and corporate carbon asset management into a synthetic single mechanism.