2. Voluntary Carbon Credits and Transport Groups
The data required by Transport Groups, to develop new transport services, could also be used to validate Voluntary Carbon Credits (VCC). A Clean Development Mechanism methodology is proposed for Transport Groups, which would overcome fundamental problems in reliably recording reductions in carbon emissions from sustainable transport.
Transport Groups
Trading-in your car for a new one avoids a transition period during which you are paying for both at the same time. Transport Groups enable people to do this collectively; trading-in their combined cars for a combination of shared alternatives that meet the same needs. It integrates supply and demand online before changes, to car ownership and provision of new transport services, are made on the ground.
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Voluntary Carbon Credits
Transport Groups are Decentralised Autonomous Organisations (DAO), formed by users, providers and investors, to co-own and govern the development of new transport services. They use several aspects of decentralised networks to make the transition shown above, without increasing costs.
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Self Sovereign Identifiers: To establish the compatible supply and demand for new shared services, data is required describing the journeys made by private car, before the transition. Self Sovereign Identifiers allow users to manage their car use data in a cryptographically secure way. AI can analyse this to identify potentially compatible Transport Group members. This data could also be used as a baseline for the Transport Group’s carbon emissions before the transition
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Smart Contracts: Transport Group members commit to a smart contract that manages pay-per-use rates for new services. Oracle networks send data from real world events, such as transport use and provision, to the smart contract. This could also be used to provide verifiable carbon emissions data for the Transport Group after the transition
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Transport Group Tokens (TGT): When a Transport Group is formed, investors buy TGT as part of a decentralised crowdfunding process. This funds the development of new transport services and infrastructure. Auto traders buy TGTs from the Transport Group and use it to pay Transport Group members for their cars. This shifts the capital trapped by cars to sustainable alternatives and avoids a carbon rebound effect. It also verifies that new services of a Transport Group have replaced the private cars of its members. This suggests that Transport Groups could claim the reduced carbon emissions from all the trips made by these cars before the transition, and also the carbon embedded in the manufacture of new cars, which are now no longer required to replace them.
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Voluntary Carbon Credits: The impact of Voluntary Carbon Credits could be significantly increased by using them to provide a return on TGT investment, rather than directly funding new transport services.