{"id":11887,"date":"2024-08-22T11:10:32","date_gmt":"2024-08-22T09:10:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.uni.lu\/snt-en\/?post_type=core-researches&#038;p=11887"},"modified":"2025-11-28T12:32:12","modified_gmt":"2025-11-28T11:32:12","slug":"developing-a-methodology-and-sustainability-standards-for-mitigating-the-environmental-impact-of-crypto-assets-mesmerice","status":"publish","type":"core-researches","link":"https:\/\/www.uni.lu\/snt-en\/core-researches\/developing-a-methodology-and-sustainability-standards-for-mitigating-the-environmental-impact-of-crypto-assets-mesmerice\/","title":{"rendered":"Developing a Methodology and Sustainability Standards for Mitigating the Environmental Impact of Crypto-Assets (MESMERICE)"},"content":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The project compiles a method to assess the negative externalities caused by crypto-assets and proposes regulatory measures to reduce them. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":67,"featured_media":11889,"template":"","meta":{"featured_image_focal_point":[],"show_featured_caption":false,"ulux_newsletter_groups":"","uluxPostTitle":"","uluxPrePostTitle":"","_trash_the_other_posts":false,"_price":"","_stock":"","_tribe_ticket_header":"","_tribe_default_ticket_provider":"","_tribe_ticket_capacity":"0","_ticket_start_date":"","_ticket_end_date":"","_tribe_ticket_show_description":"","_tribe_ticket_show_not_going":false,"_tribe_ticket_use_global_stock":"","_tribe_ticket_global_stock_level":"","_global_stock_mode":"","_global_stock_cap":"","_tribe_rsvp_for_event":"","_tribe_ticket_going_count":"","_tribe_ticket_not_going_count":"","_tribe_tickets_list":"[]","_tribe_ticket_has_attendee_info_fields":false,"rp_acronym":"MESMERICE","rp_abstract":"The rapid development of crypto-assets based on distributed ledger technologies offers potential benefits for the EU economy but also raises concerns about energy use and wider environmental impacts. In response, the European Commission launched a preparatory action on the \u201cdevelopment of a methodology and sustainability standards for mitigating the environmental impact of crypto-assets\u201d.\n\nMESMERICE synthesised and extended existing research to build an independent, life-cycle based methodology for quantifying the environmental, social and governance impacts of crypto-asset consensus mechanisms. Using the EU Environmental Footprint approach, the study assessed five major crypto-assets (Bitcoin, Ethereum, Solana, XRP and DAI) and benchmarked them against traditional financial services.\n\nThe results show that most assessed crypto-assets provide services with relatively low environmental impact, broadly comparable to or lower than conventional payment and value-storage options. However, Proof-of-Work (the consensus mechanism used by Bitcoin) has orders-of-magnitude higher electricity use and greenhouse gas emissions, with global annual emissions estimated at around 74 MtCO\u2082e and energy use projected to grow further towards 2030. The study also highlights concentrated validation, governance vulnerabilities and slightly weaker social conditions in crypto-related data centres. Building on this evidence, MESMERICE explored options for an EU sustainability standard. It identified feasible voluntary and targeted mandatory measures, especially for crypto-asset service providers, such as limiting portfolios to energy-efficient crypto-assets and improving disclosure and governance profiles, thereby supporting the implementation of MiCAR and wider EU sustainable-finance policies.","rp_start_date":"2024-07-01 10:24:54","rp_duration":13,"rp_main_funder":"DG-FISMA","rp_other_funders":[],"rp_external_partners":["Trinomics"],"rp_keywords":["Blockchain","Cryptocurrency","Crypto-asset","Energy consumption","Externalities","Regulation"],"rp_members":[{"name":"Gilbert FRIDGEN","isPI":true,"isExternal":false,"featuredImageUrl":"https:\/\/www.uni.lu\/en\/person-image\/NTAwMzg1MTZfX0dpbGJlcnQgRlJJREdFTg==","detailsPageUrl":"https:\/\/www.uni.lu\/snt-en\/people\/gilbert-fridgen\/","id":"50038516"},{"name":"Laurent Zibell","isPI":true,"isExternal":true,"featuredImageUrl":"","detailsPageUrl":"","entity":"Trinomics"},{"name":"Johannes SCH\u00d6NRICH-SEDLMEIR","isPI":false,"isExternal":false,"featuredImageUrl":"https:\/\/www.uni.lu\/en\/person-image\/NTAwNDM5MzJfX0pvaGFubmVzIFNDSMOWTlJJQ0gtU0VETE1FSVI=","detailsPageUrl":"https:\/\/www.uni.lu\/snt-en\/people\/johannes-sedlmeir\/","id":"50043932"},{"name":"Orestis PAPAGEORGIOU","isPI":false,"isExternal":false,"featuredImageUrl":"https:\/\/www.uni.lu\/en\/person-image\/NTAwNDMzODRfX09yZXN0aXMgUEFQQUdFT1JHSU9V","detailsPageUrl":"https:\/\/www.uni.lu\/snt-en\/people\/orestis-papageorgiou\/","id":"50043384"},{"name":"Matthew Smith","isPI":false,"isExternal":true,"featuredImageUrl":"","detailsPageUrl":"","entity":"Trinomics"},{"name":"Cosima Dekker-Huffler","isPI":false,"isExternal":true,"featuredImageUrl":"","detailsPageUrl":"","entity":"Trinomics"}]},"research-project-status":[],"research-project-type":[264],"field-of-interest":[282],"organisation":[190,184],"authorship":[67],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uni.lu\/snt-en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/core-researches\/11887"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uni.lu\/snt-en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/core-researches"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uni.lu\/snt-en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/core-researches"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uni.lu\/snt-en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/67"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.uni.lu\/snt-en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/core-researches\/11887\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11890,"href":"https:\/\/www.uni.lu\/snt-en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/core-researches\/11887\/revisions\/11890"}],"wp:authorship":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uni.lu\/snt-en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/67"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uni.lu\/snt-en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/11889"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uni.lu\/snt-en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11887"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"research-project-status","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uni.lu\/snt-en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/research-project-status?post=11887"},{"taxonomy":"research-project-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uni.lu\/snt-en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/research-project-type?post=11887"},{"taxonomy":"field-of-interest","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uni.lu\/snt-en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/field-of-interest?post=11887"},{"taxonomy":"organisation","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uni.lu\/snt-en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/organisation?post=11887"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}