The first use-case of carbon credit trading has been completed as part of Australia’s central bank digital currency (CBDC) trial, according to an announcement made on Wednesday by the Melbourne-based Australia and New Zealand Banking Group Ltd (ANZ).
The Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) and the Digital Finance Cooperative Research Centre (DFCRC) launched Australia’s CBDC pilot last year to investigate potential uses for a CBDC. Program funding for the DFCRC adds up to $124.3 million — which is contributed by universities, business partners, and the Australian government.
ANZ joined hands with Grollo Carbon Ventures to trade the governmental Clean Energy Regulator-issued Australian Carbon Credit Units (ACCUs).
The real-world ACCUs are tested by tokenizing the existing ACCUs beforehand, which are then purchased with ANZ’s own stablecoin A$DC. The announcement stated that the pilot CBDC was utilized as a safe asset to support the issuance of A$DC. Carbon market tokenization can speed up settlement, lower partnership risk, and encourage investment in climate solutions.
The RBA disclosed a lineup of projects that aim to test CBDC use cases. The RBA has also revealed that entities such as Mastercard, Monoova, the Australian Bond Exchange, DigiCash and Commonwealth Bank are partners for the pilot projects.
