The Australian and New Zealand Banking Group (ANZ) partnered with Grollo Carbon Ventures (GCV) to allow the trade of Australian Carbon Credit Units (ACCUs). The project was one of 14 piloted by the Reserve Bank of Australia to investigate potential uses of a central bank digital currency (CBDC).
In the project, ANZ and GCV focused on the tokenization of nature-based and real-world assets, and they started with ACCUs. They tokenized already existing ACCUs and issued a stablecoin, A$DC, which allowed the GCV to buy tokenized ACCUs with real-time settlement through ANZ’s smart contracts.
They conducted the transaction on a public and permissionless blockchain using a pilot CBDC to back the issuance of the dollar-backed stablecoin.
“When applied to carbon markets, tokenization has the potential to improve efficiency and transparency, reduce risk and preserve the unique characteristics of underlying projects to incentivize investment in climate solutions,” said Nigel Dobson, ANZ’s banking services head.
Meanwhile, ANZ is partnering with two universities to run a trial of offline CBDC payments. In another pilot project, it is testing the effectiveness and efficiency of employers in using CBDC as an alternative to traditional payment methods.
