It’s already deal-time in the young-but-growing market for satellite verification of carbon capture activity. This week, XELS, the Hong Kong-headquartered “eco-tech firm” that has developed a blockchain-based application for trading carbon offsets, announced a strategic partnership with Israeli geospatial climate intelligence firm Albo Climate, which pairs satellite imagery with deep machine learning to “visualize” carbon capture and sequestration projects.
Albo Climate’s technology will enable XELS to validate nature-based carbon offset projects, particularly those involving protected lands and reforestation efforts. Initially, this technology will be used to scan, monitor and predict carbon sequestration by “carbon sinks” (i.e., areas that naturally absorb more carbon than they release) that XELS has already sourced in Australia and Japan.
Initially focused on voluntary carbon offsets, in April of this year XELS launched a digital carbon offset platform and carbon credit-backed digital asset. XELS tokens exist on an immutable public ledger and, unlike traditional carbon credits, cannot be modified or double spent. Once a XELS token is “burned,” it is retired forever.
XELS says its partnership with Albo Climate will help it offer the highest quality carbon credits currently available. XELS is actively sourcing carbon sinks and other nature-based climate solutions, which the company believes are the most beneficial to the environment and humanity at large. The company explains that ensuring a plot of forestry is protected from logging is important, but quantifying how much carbon that land can offset by remaining intact is difficult and often involves guessing instead of hard science: hence the need for reliable, precise data.
Albo Climate’s technology uses deep learning algorithms to develop proprietary CO2 sequestration models that vary according to the specific ecosystem being scanned. Albo Climate, a Techstars alum, is also working with forestry and agriculture companies across the US and Europe.
“The key to unlock the carbon credit markets and have a significant impact on climate change is to bring cutting edge technologies – this is the right combination Albo Climate and XELS are bringing,” says Albo Climate CEO Jacques Amselem. “Together, we are combining Albo Climate’s ultra-accurate and transparent AI quantification of CO2 sequestration, with XELS secure block-chain-powered carbon credits trading.”
In May of this year, Albo Climate announced a partnership with Ecuador’s Universidad De Las Américas (UDLA) and Fundación Futuro, both based in Ecuador, to produce a high-resolution productivity and carbon stocks map of the area of the Chocó Andino UNESCO World Heritage Site and to develop a Monitoring, Reporting & Verification (MRV) Methodology for the use of remote sensing in tropical mountain forests.
