How Does Bitcoin Affect The Environment?

On Wednesday May 12, 2021, Tesla announced that it would resume accepting bitcoin (and would consider selling more of it) once the process of mining bitcoin “transitions to more sustainable energy”. The company is also “looking at other cryptocurrencies that use less than 1% of Bitcoin’s energy in transactions”

We’ve had many arguments on whether bitcoin mining actually saves the environment or harms it in the short and long term and these concerns have existed since 2009 when bitcoin began.

Many people can’t understand why bitcoin mining and the environment should be mentioned in the same sentence. In this chat, the Chairperson, Global Executive Board of Plant-for-the-Planet and Global Focal Point SDG7 Youth Constituency at the United Nations Major Group for Children and Youth, Chiagozie Udeh, talks about the relationship between bitcoin mining and the environment and why climate activists like him care?