Tracking climate commitments
Climate commitments often involve governments, funders, auditors, and other institutions. Their targets, progress reports, and assessments may be spread across separate systems. A shared record could connect what was committed, what progress was reported, and how that progress was assessed over time.
One possible approach
In this example, institutions use a climate reporting system that connects to Ethereum. The system links a commitment with subsequent progress reports, assessments, and corrections, while detailed reports and datasets can remain in existing systems.
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Record the commitment
A government or other institution publishes a climate commitment, including its target and time frame. The climate reporting system records the commitment on Ethereum so that later reports and assessments can be linked back to it.
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Report progress
At agreed intervals, the institution submits measurements or milestones through the climate reporting system. Supporting reports and datasets remain in existing systems and do not need to be uploaded to Ethereum. The system can instead record a cryptographic hash of each file, allowing later versions to be checked for changes.
A cryptographic hash is a short code derived from a file. If the file changes, the code changes too.
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Record independent assessments
Auditors or other authorized organizations review the reported information and record their assessments through the system. Each assessment is linked to the relevant commitment and reporting period, making it clear which reported progress it relates to.
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Review progress over time
Institutions, funders, auditors, and, where appropriate, the public can follow the commitment, reported progress, assessments, and later corrections as a connected record over time.
What Ethereum enables
Ethereum can preserve a record of the original commitment and how reported progress develops over time. Later updates can be linked to earlier entries rather than replacing them, making changes to targets, reports, and assessments visible. This gives governments, funders, auditors, and the public a clearer basis for comparing subsequent reporting with the original commitment.