Climate Impact of NFT Art
In the art world, NFT (non-fungible token) has become mainstream and is commonly used as a unique and non-interchangeable unit of data stored on a blockchain, a form of digital ledger that makes it possible to sell artwork to a single owner – even though everyone else can still share the art.
In terms of climate change the digital certificate NFT affects the global warming to a great extent. Cryptocurrency, which is primarily used to trade artwork, used approx. 100 TWh in 2021 and emitted approx. 48 million tonnes of Co2, equivalent to 3 times as much electricity as we use throughout Denmark in one year.
Bitcoin's annualized footprint in electricity consumption reached an all-time high in 2021 and the impact factor increased by 10 in the last 3 years.
On December 29, 2021 Prof. Leif K. Oxenløwe was interviewed by DR P1 Kulturen about NFT’s deep impact of climate change. Listen to the Danish interview ‘Klimasvinet NFT':
Interview (21:20 – 34:52).