le-ultracivic

le-ultracivic issues an ERC-20 token called $PR (Pollution Right) to anyone who buys and retires the legal rights of US and EU polluters to emit a ton of CO2. We start with fossil fuel power plants in the Northeastern US.

Pollution rights cost $24, and a ton of CO2 costs society $230. If you buy one and retire it, power plants can’t have it and cut emissions by one exact ton—enforced by state governments., and far cheaper than carbon removal ($300-$1,000/ton). Over there, there’s a fixed supply of pollution rights, and anyone can buy them! People can then force power plants to emit one fewer ton of CO2 by purchasing and retiring a pollution right that they would have otherwise used. They cost $24, a ton of carbon costs society $230 (according to the US EPA), and state governments enforce power plants' emissions cuts.

Token minting stops when the price of pollution rights attains $230. That’s when power plants pay full cost for their emissions and cut up to 80 million tons of CO2 annually.

Right now, the retirement and minting process is centralized: we keep retired pollution rights forever and issue $PR. Soon, it won't. We will set up eternal irrevocable trusts that can't sell them---a kind of IRL burn address---and encourage third-party trusts. We will set up governance processes to decrease our minting power.

On the tech side, it doesn't get much simpler: it's an ERC-20 token with governance. Much of the code you can find at OpenZeppelin.

On the legal side, one purchases pollution rights via quarterly government auctions. The more you buy, the costlier they become, forcing power plants to either stop polluting or shift to renewables.