If it doesn't have a governance structure who specifically has been calling for regulation within the ecosystem as it pertains to bitcoin and mining? I'm only aware of calls for regulation as it pertains to the markets of crypto.
Firstly, its a decentralized activity and it needs to stay that way. So that maybe why you haven't heard those calls. Secondly, those calls have largely been reactionary to instances of punitive regulation in the space. Here's an
example. Mining needs to stay decentralized so if you have an expectation of the whole thing coming together in unison under one organization, not only will that not happen, nobody in the community would want to see any attempts towards that for obvious reasons.
That said, the Bitcoin Mining Council did emerge amid some controversy a couple of years ago , and it has been active in calling for equal treatment compared with similar activities like data centers.
The data centre question is easy, they are owned by centralised enterprises that have governance structures and ESG goals.
Ah but its not. If we're talking environment, then we're talking about the entire world - not just those that go along with western-driven initiatives. Other than that, its interesting that other such activities have lower renewable usage rates comparatively, if they're so well regulated.
As you point out bitcoin can't have a governance structure. So my question was in the absence of this how does BTC move to net zero?
It seems a bit of a challenge.
I don't see it as a major challenge. For those that are bothered about net zero, then it can be regulated within each jurisdiction accordingly. Other than that, it is way ahead of other activities anyway. You may have missed the point I made above but as an activity, it is far and away greener than other such activities.
For the most part, I don't see a challenge (beyond the perennial haphazard environmental policy that exists globally in general anyway), I see opportunity - if (a big if) - authorities approach the activity positively rather than politically motivated attempts disguised as regulation - in an effort to stomp the entire thing out. The Biden Administration's recent soundings of punitively taxing bitcoin mining is a clear example.
Another opportunity which is slowly but surely being exploited is that companies like BP can collaborate with bitcoin miners to utilize flared gas (that is otherwise wasted as no other use case out in the middle of nowhere) and bring down very damaging methane emissions.
Remember that by protocol design, its simply uneconomic for most miners in most regions to mine bitcoin using anything other than near-free energy right now. The most likely free-energy is waste energy that's otherwise not being utilized or excess renewable energy (which always exists because of the nature of renewable energy generation).
Last point....recent years have seen people try to clobber it over the head by (comparatively) misrepresenting the E element of ESG relative to bitcoin....while ignoring entirely the S and G in ESG.