From Climate Science to Legal Responsibility: Integrating Forest Ecosystem Impacts into the Governance of Crypto-Economic Activities

Climate and forest sciences have robustly documented the role of forests in carbon sequestration, climate regulation, biodiversity conservation, and ecosystem resilience. At the same time, energy-intensive digital economies – particularly crypto-asset systems such as Bitcoin – are expanding rapidly, increasing electricity demand and associated greenhouse gas emissions. While the energy use of crypto mining is increasingly transparent, its ecological externalities are not translated into legal responsibility or compensation mechanisms. Existing regulations focus primarily on financial stability, consumer protection, and market integrity, leaving a governance gap regarding environmental responsibility, burden sharing, and ecosystem protection. This disconnect represents a critical blind spot in climate governance, where scientific evidence of ecosystem impacts is not yet reflected in legal and policy frameworks for emerging digital sectors.

This contribution develops a conceptual framework that integrates forest ecosystem service impacts into the governance of crypto-economic activities. Building on forest science and climate impact literature, the study explores how scientific knowledge on carbon storage, biodiversity value, and ecosystem resilience can inform legal and policy approaches applicable to the crypto sector, with the aim of aligning digital innovation with ecosystem protection.

The research adopts a qualitative, review-based approach, combining analysis of EU crypto, energy, and environmental policies with a structured review of forest ecosystem service literature and insights from expert interviews and surveys. This enables identification of where current legal frameworks fail to internalise ecological impacts and where opportunities exist to integrate ecosystem considerations.

Particular attention is given to Payment for Ecosystem Services (PES) as a potential mechanism for translating forest ecosystem values into legal and policy responsibility, supported by complementary incentive-based approaches. The expected outcomes include clarification of a regulatory gap in the ecological governance of digital financial activities, a science-informed framework linking forest ecosystem services to legal responsibility in the crypto sector, and policy-relevant insights for integrating ecosystem protection into digital economy regulation. By addressing questions of responsibility and burden sharing, this work contributes to ongoing debates on climate justice and the role of science in informing environmental law and policy.

Key Words: Payment for Ecosystem Services (PES);  Digital economy; Sustainable finance; Climate governance; Forest ecosystem services