According to a blog post, The Bitcoin ESG Forecast analyzed data from its Bitcoin Energy and Emissions Sustainability Tracker, or BEEST model, and compared Bitcoin’s sustainable energy mix to other industries over the past four years using publicly available data. The Bitcoin ESG forecast showed that Bitcoin mining using sustainable energy rose to a new all-time high of 54.5%, with sustainable mining expected to grow by 3.6% overall during the 2023 calendar year. According to the data, Bitcoin mining is now the largest user of renewable energy across many sub-sectors and has achieved a 3.6% increase in sustainable mining for calendar year 2023 compared to other global industries.
Bitcoin ESG Forecast found that autonomous Bitcoin miners are using methane emissions. Small oil producers in Canada and the United States pay for permits to burn natural gas, some of which directly emit methane, which is harder to detect, according to the study. However, some mining companies use the associated gas to generate electricity to mine Bitcoin, reducing the environmental impact compared to releasing it into the air. This means the Bitcoin network is reducing 7.3% of all its emissions without offsets, a new record high and the highest level of emissions reductions without offsets of any industry. According to the article, additional off-grid Bitcoin mining using renewable energy, such as the expansion of Tether’s hydropower mining facilities in Latin America and the opening of more off-grid, gas-fired systems, means the Bitcoin network uses more sustainable energy than ever before. or.
Following the ban on mining in China and its de facto ban in Kazakhstan, miners have largely moved to greener networks in North America or to climate-resilient off-grid sites. The report said that global networks as a whole are becoming greener, by about 0.7% per year. At the same time, the decrease in emission intensity for network Bitcoin miners was about 29% compared to 2021.
