NFT Club: Issuing each token generates 83 kg of carbon dioxide

Analysts at NFT Club have studied the impact of issuing and trading non-fungible tokens on the environment.

Specialists in their report emphasize that any action with NFT leads to the production of carbon dioxide, as it requires energy. The most energy-intensive procedure, issuing a token, generates 83 kg of CO₂. Selling NFTs on the secondary market harms the environment in much the same way, generating 81 kg of CO₂. The initial sale of the token is equivalent to the production of 51 kg of carbon dioxide, and the movement is 30 kg. Even bets to buy NFTs generate 23 kg CO2 emissions₂.

Analysts assessed the impact on the nature of popular collections of NFTs and games using such tokens. According to them, the CryptoKitties game, which was the harbinger of the NFT boom, generated 240,000 tons of CO₂. The game has generated over 2 million primary NFT sales and over 892,000 secondary sales. It will take 4 million trees to level such environmental damage.

“Over the course of their lifetime, NFTs, on average, emit 211 kg of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. One tree can recycle 60 kg of CO₂so each token requires 3.52 trees to be planted,” the researchers emphasize.

There are ways to solve the problem – the use of blockchains with low energy costs. For example, the transition of the Axie Infinity game to the Ronin blockchain at the end of April 2021 saved almost 25 million trees, NFT Club says. There were 18.5 million token sales in the game, which on the Ethereum blockchain would have resulted in the release of 1.5 million tons of CO₂. However, thanks to the use of Ronin, the game generated only 27 kg of carbon dioxide.

Earlier, the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) launched its own collection of NFTs, but subsequently abandoned the sale of tokens under pressure from environmentalists.