Thread by @Reuters

Tesla boss Elon Musk is a poster child of low-carbon technology. Yet the electric carmaker’s backing of #bitcoin this week could turbo-charge global use of a currency that’s estimated to cause more pollution than a small country every year reut.rs/3aLNzlS

Tesla revealed it had bought $1.5 billion of bitcoin and would soon accept it as payment for cars, sending the price of the cryptocurrency through the roof

So what’s the problem, you may ask?

#Bitcoin is created when high-powered computers compete against other machines to solve complex mathematical puzzles, an energy-intensive process that currently often relies on fossil fuels, particularly coal, the dirtiest of them all

At current rates, such bitcoin 'mining' devours about the same amount of energy annually as the Netherlands did in 2019, the latest available data from the University of Cambridge and the International Energy Agency shows

Bitcoin production is estimated to generate between 22 and 22.9 metric tons of carbon dioxide emissions a year, or between the levels produced by Jordan and Sri Lanka, according to a 2019 study in scientific journal Joule

The inclusion of bitcoin in Tesla’s investment portfolio could complicate its zero-emissions ethos, according to some investors, at a time when ESG considerations have become a major factor for global investors.@tomwilson1983 and @annairrera report reut.rs/3aLNzlS

It’s not all eco-doom and gloom, and Tesla’s bet on bitcoin comes amid growing attempts in the cryptocurrency industry to mitigate the environmental harm of mining

The entrance of big corporations into the crypto market could also boost incentives to produce 'green bitcoin' using renewable energy, some sustainability experts say.

They add that companies could buy carbon credits to compensate too