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As renewable energy becomes cheaper, more and more Bitcoin miners use it. As of 2023, about half of the electricity used for Bitcoin mining was generated through renewables and nuclear energy. Should Bitcoin switch entirely to non-fossil energy, it could become carbon neutral.
Moreover, as highlighted by the World Economic Forum, some miners mitigate methane emissions in oil fields and some pilot projects aim to do the same in landfills. As methane has a greater global warming potential than CO2, combusting methane that would have otherwise been released into the atmosphere is an effective path to offset remaining greenhouse gas emissions.
According to bitcoiner and environmentalist Daniel Batten, if emission intensity continues to drop at the same rate, Bitcoin will hit net zero in Q4 2028.
Will Bitcoin mining be carbon-neutral on January 1st, 2030?
The question will be resolved using the Wikipedia page "Environmental effects of bitcoin" on January 1st, 2030. In case of an ongoing edit war, I'll wait for the page to "stabilize". If high-quality reliable sources disagree, I'll resolve the question as N/A. However, if high-quality reliable sources (e.g., peer-reviewed research published in a good academic journal) claim something while lower-quality sources (e.g., mainstream media such as the NYT or WSJ) claim the opposite, I'll resolve following the high-quality reliable sources.