{"id":1385,"date":"2017-03-10T13:41:38","date_gmt":"2017-03-10T13:41:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.dgen.net\/blog\/?p=1385"},"modified":"2026-02-04T09:26:30","modified_gmt":"2026-02-04T09:26:30","slug":"the-amee-story-part-one","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dgen.net\/0\/2017\/03\/10\/the-amee-story-part-one\/","title":{"rendered":"The AMEE story (part one)"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

In 2005, I was working with climate change charity Global Cool <\/a>and global hedge fund Man Group<\/a> (in my spare time) to try and create a global movement around climate change awareness and action.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While chairing the working group that created the \u201cGlobal Cool Tonne\u201d (which became one of the first UK Government\u2019s Gold Standard offset mechanisms) I became very concerned about the transparency and credibility of the information being used in the market. As a result of this I started to pull together ideas about how to solve that problem.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To create long-term, scalable change I believe you need credible, transparent information. We have all witnessed that the Carbon markets have suffered greatly from a lack of such credibility.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Andrew Conway and I studied astrophysics together at Glasgow University, and have been friends for over 20 years. Diggory Briercliffe and I worked together to to design and build Virgin Net\u2019s web systems, and have been friends for over 15 years.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The genesis of AMEE (in 2006) was the combination of three events: (1) a conversation with Diggory to discuss the potential of representing emissions data and a computational and transactional engine, in a web-service API. (2) a conversation with Andrew to discuss the potential of codifying Government and environmental standards in such an open platform, and (3) a presentation I gave to Climate Change Capital presenting my ideas for treating carbon as a global currency – with CO2e values mapped against every line-item on financial statements.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

I funded the initial development through Dgen<\/strong><\/span> and, via various friends and colleagues, we were noticed by Bryony Worthington<\/a> from Defra, who was lead author on the Climate Change Act. The Friday before Christmas in 2006 I was called into Defra to explain what our plans were for helping to open up Government data (the bedrock of the calculations used in carbon footprinting). At the end of that meeting I was asked to write a white paper for UK Secretary of State, David Miliband, to go in his briefcase on the Monday so he could digest it over Christmas.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

We began working directly with Defra on 2nd Jan 2007. Six months later, the Secretary of State went on national television to launch the project, \u201cAct on CO2<\/a>\u201d.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Act<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

There were many \u201cfirsts\u201d that came from this project:<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n