Today's headlines raise serious concerns about a plethora of issues at the nexus of climate, technology, and financial markets. Clean energy adoption is falling behind Paris Agreement targets, yet it remains difficult for energy customers of all types to participate. Financial markets are not delivering sufficient funds for the required climate action. Investments that offer a mix of environmental, social, and governance (ESG) credentials require commitments and internal policies rather than proof of action. On top of all of this, cryptocurrencies like bitcoin and ethereum have added a new source of energy consumption amounting to the electricity use of a medium size economy.

So where do we go from here? To start, we must activate more demand for clean energy to send stronger market signals to financial markets for investments in new renewables capacity worldwide and better verify real, measurable climate action. To achieve this, we must remove practical barriers to voluntary renewables procurement and verifying green credentials with digital-led solutions. To introduce these digital solutions to the market, we should target the most digitally savvy buyers with motivation to decarbonize swiftly: the crypto industry.

The team at Zumo, along with Zero Labs, will develop an integrated, user-friendly modular technology suite for B2B services to enable anyone that holds cryptocurrencies to power their crypto activities with renewables and prove it. Specifically, this technology will enable any business to deliver new services to their customers for estimating the energy use of their crypto holdings and activities, procuring standardised renewable energy products via renewable energy certificates (RECs), and delivering customers verifiable blockchain-based proof of REC delivery for environmental reporting needs.

By introducing these first-of-a-kind tools to the market, Zumo will attract more businesses to use the ZumoKit software toolkit and enable these businesses and their customers to access crypto markets in an environmentally responsible way and increase demand for renewable energy. Zumo is already a leader in this area, with a comprehensive net zero strategy and a recently published state-of-play report 'Decarbonising Crypto - where do we go from here?'.

The RenewableCrypto project will serve as a global showcase supporting the Crypto Climate Accord, of which Zumo and Zero Labs are Signatories, and demonstrate technology-based climate leadership from the UK. The project will set an example not only in the crypto industry but also the wider financial services sector around the direction the sector should move: taking climate action and proving it.