Climate Change or Social Change: The Role of Blockchain

foreign [Music] days ago I was a diplomat I used to work for the UN for the last seven years until I get to know how hard it is to change the system from within so now I'm here with you guys in order to change it together right and I wanted to share with you some of my some of my learnings my thoughts my feelings from all this experience especially regarding climate change right and I would like to to work with you in order to get a solution that actually really transforms what is happening now with the climate action which is just a symptom of something more deepen which is our production and consumption system so I I really wish the blockchain ecosystem does not fall into the repeating the same but with a nicer technology or a cooler technology well here is our friendly dinosaur coming from 66 Millions ago giving out advice and the the cool thing of this is that this was a campaign issue by a UN agency you probably when you think about you and you think of a most conservative or maybe Century 20 organization but the guys were encouraged in because of the whole science we are reading the whole day to launch this sort of campaigns right and this is related to the potential Extinction we're about to face due to climate change you are probably have heard about the Paris agreement and you we need to understand that the Paris agreement was built over the biggest consensus scientifically and politically in the history of humankind this is this is strong right so we when we when we hear about the 1.5 degrees we we shouldn't surpass in the next years what is that because I think it's very difficult to embody it right so or having like a tangible data in this term you can read the latest War material logical organization together with the U.N disaster risk management office saying that the forecast for 2030 is one point disasters a day this is the latest report so 1.5 degrees more is 1.5 disasters a day in this world so that's earthquakes tsunamis floods heat waves everything that affects obviously people lives but also infrastructure electricity infrastructure and so the internet and so this blockchain so we we really need to be specifically concerned on this I really recommend you to see this augmentary is very it's very new because it actually appeals to how we create negation mechanisms when we hear all this information and it happened to me even at the U.

N reading all the reports and being part of the report so what what what are you going to do once you know but what are you going to do once you feel it once you get to know where get you feel what you know you have to believe what you know so this kind of paralyze you or move to action real action so going into my diagnosis of why we are here in this situation I think there's a clear misleading the approach that is the old the Olin sdgs you know sdgs Cadbury incredible targets of poverty zero hunger zero clean energy for everyone etc etc right sustainable consumption production but we have this sdg which is number eight and promotes indefinite economic growth so going into a very precise example everyone wants to go renewable right renewable energy but what if tomorrow today we all decide to go 100 Renewables well we need minerals for that we need extraction according to the World Bank we need in order to be aligned with a 1.5 degrees of the police agreement we need three billion tons of minerals lithium Cobalt graphite which is under the Amazon down the Amazon so and that will imply a lot of trade-offs in other sectors in other sdgs I know obviously a massive amount of burn oil of burnt oil because we are just moving the the mission of git to other sectors transport extractives and the industry so I was willing to enter the here dancing one song of The Rolling Stones but due to copyright stuff we had another one but the the Rolling Stones said it in a very nice Way You Can't Always Get What You Want and that's my part of the song like all in sdg but if you try some time you just might find you get what you need so let's see a concrete example of the misleader I'm telling you about 25 years of the voluntary carbon Market this is a few to few approach while emissions Rising as you already know so in the demand side the reach offsetters the buyers Coca-Cola Airways car Hill whoever principally from the food and energy sectors which are the most polluting ones the principal generators of climate change look at this data from from Oxfam during the pandemic when the economy was shrinking 453 new billionaires in this sector that is supposed to offset in order to get below the 1.5 rich middlemen in 2021 1 billion dollars for the current market few Traders made in 2021 and in the this is the worst part of the of the story because these are the guys in the supply side the guys that are protecting the ecosystems we need to thrive look at this at this notice from from our community in in India sorry in Kenya these projects are sending people out and they can even not afford to put into the market their their own Supply their projects because they are made for the rich in order to credit and be able to sell a credit to presenter projects you need the transaction costs are huge so that's why you have big landowners with with trees with forests claiming reductions from I don't know a hundred thousand hectares Baseline and next year I will do 70 000 you can pay me that is that the sdgs are them supposed to do that so getting into blockchain what is happening right now you probably heard also about the hype of the Eco tokens of tokenizing this voluntary carbon Market credits into the blockchain and it's very interesting you read this research published by Thomson Reuters also like one month ago from a scandal that's what that was raised in Brazil due to a a person that was living in the community where the project was being held that died he died in the project and due to his death everyone paid attention to it and the scam was off what was leaked so just look at this this crypto company in Brazil has been accused of packed more than 2 million carbon credits and turned them into crypto tokens at times selling the grades for eight times more so they mixed in those 2 million they mix very low quality credits with Middle grades and they packed them I mean you know a low quality credit is the one that has no environmental robust asset behind the token right that's a so the editor who this was a WhatsApp message leaked the editor who initially approved the project a decade ago found that deforestation may have been displaced to land nearby and that is a violation of one of the main principles of the carbon Market or the voluntary current markets which is permanence but it's very difficult how can we ensure we measure our project it's perfect how can we ensure that the deforestation going on there does not go to the other land or maybe another country is a global problem and they didn't even trust they created 150 green job 150 green jobs for 2 million carbon credits it's a huge or almost nothing so we need to know that although this and we we need to remind I think what blockchain has been built for the the the core principles of blockchain right how how those could be applied into this you know Upstream we need to replace those few offsets for those big polluters making new billionaires in the most polluting sectors we need to replace one offset from that those ones from like a participation in that one from all of us savers then we as vitalik said we need to automatize the center that's blockchain about and downstream allowing those humans those real populations but probably there's a gap because they cannot reach internet in many cases but anyway they are the ones that really have a ignorant willingness to defend ecosystems and the forest because they live in the forest that's that's inner and transparency right and that's what blockchain I think in my humble opinion should be about so but what about the agenda right I think we need to consider and I would like I've been talking with a lot of you in these days about this because I I I'm not an expert in Dallas nor blockchain as well but these guys are 500 Scholars and former Ministers of environment that presented a letter in the last U.N disaster risk management um conference asking the U.N to replace the sdgs for a more sincere agenda an agenda that is really aligned with science that is focus on locally LED adaptation climate adaptation that's not mitigation to reduce but adaptation how to create resilience for this for infrastructure loads loss we we've seen before and also this disaster risk management which is very very important not to lose among other staff the blockchain so are we willing to put ourselves in a position to help these guys to put because they probably don't know what blockchain is they probably haven't even think of this so what if we put what if a ethereum foundation or whoever here wants to collaborate in this We Make some noise and help these guys or through the blockchain governance tools we have create a capacity building and create a pilot a pilot project to really change the world so going back to the many-to-many approach I told in the in the carbon Market or the Eco tokens this pilot is is not has not been already executed but it's very interesting how it has been designed because it was really designed from many to many although it was it was it could not be so ambitious at the beginning it was really what I'm trying to say in an example you can see those investors in the middle with the project try to gather from the application of a bank where almost everybody in Argentina this is for El Taco Argentina in the North um where everyone received their salary so they give the now with this project they should give the option instead of saving with something else you can buy an Eco token and in the supply side this is a very interesting interesting part and Diego I think before me he spoke something of interesting things about this but how the jurisdictional authorities how can we somehow we need them in our part they have the infrastructure to reach those territories we don't have it yet so the government the governor of Chaco committed at least verbally so this is just an idea remember that but he publicly confirmed that he wanted to do this and he wanted to reach the territories of those ecosystem sorry Echo tokens Revenue to reach directly their populations living in the forests through smart contracts and he committed himself to sign a bill in order to sort of delegate his mandate in in that regard not not the jurisdiction because that's a legal problem but to delegate and I think that's a very important role for this for uh for the estate for the government for the old Paradigm to become helper of these two to to actually be Unleashed right and another example I wanted to share with you which is also very very brand new they're working already and they they are from Colombia they're from here Echo registry because we need to know what what to do about the transition because we we have those Coca-Cola Delta Airlines car Hill buyer whatever willing to and and the demand for carbon credits has grown exponentially in the last years not the supply because of what I I told you there's no money to create projects but yes they demand there's a there was a 2 billion annual demand for credits in 2021 I think we should harness on but how this is a very interesting model here in Colombia that is spreading into other countries so they are not going to they don't just tokenize a carbon credit whichever the current credit asset quality is but they migrate into blockchain every part of the process of our of the life cycle of our carbon credit from their project design formulation validation verification the issuance the Bison cells that could be before retirement that is when the company the corporation claims the emission reduction and they are making this very transparent and very efficient to the point that the average in the market of reaching money to the developers is like 25 percent roughly these guys are reaching now 50 percent and they have a short-term plan of reaching 70 percent so that could be a smart transition that could be because those numbers those efficiency numbers could make the the transaction cost easier and and lower for the small communities actually to to be involved so finally if ethereum vision this is a web page of ethereum is to grow remember my slide of the icd8 we need to we need to clearly think and be aware and be aware of what kind of growth and for whom because humanity is at stake thank you thank you Augustine we have room for uh some questions somebody want to ask to Augustine we have here I'm gonna go there just five seconds thank you so much for the the talk really really loved especially the ideas about making you know these markets these processes more inclusive many to many I think that's a transition that like all the impact space really needs to go through when we think about that though how does that marry with the fact that like carbon markets and the capital moving into that space just needs to increase because like the two billion dollar number is a lot but you know it's probably a tenth a hundred of what we're going to need exactly yeah and even more um no a good question you know yeah obviously it's not the it's not the solution not at all I think we need to remind the the slide of the of these guys presenting a new agenda that's trying to redirect all the international cooperation cooperation system that or the the Paradigm under or the agenda under which this with all the money that he that enters the U.

N and also the bilateral corporations and also corporations are flowing the money too so we need to I think my first answer would be to we need to redefine the politics in order for the tool the blockchain tool to work to to make it happen but we need the politics right we need to get together them right so yeah voluntary carbon markets is just this but I focus on that because of the hype of the Eco tokens thank you for that question any other question if someone wants to do it in Spanish also right another question there please is with technical in English or Spanish English or Spanish and English Okay um well it's it's actually it's a crazy idea you know it's idea that popped into my mind and I share it with Paul here my friend from ethereum and I just saw that I I am very involved in the I know a lot of scientists in in the and former ministers and everyone that came from the U.N so I I get I get to see this this letter that has been presented in this in this so it's it was just an idea because I think my opinion is we need to connect the dots we need to integrate these two words those guys that are in my opinion very well aligned in the policy defining the policy for what we are going to need for those 1.5 disasters a day and for the NLC energy transitions by taking taking a look at the territories what if we I don't know think together how could that hour could look like or many Taos or not but the other governance tools coming from from the blockchain so it's just an idea that we can discuss and we can create it together so thank you thank you there is another question there please here hi thank you for the talk I wanted to ask in relation to the idea of many to many uh that sometimes means and and the idea of taken away from the big you know offsetters and empowering the little local impact makers that requires taking the technology to places where it doesn't really exist right so how do we Empower how do we create that impact so that it's local people doing things for themselves instead of the blockchain industry trying to decide on their behalf and think they know what they're dealing with cool very very interesting question and obviously my first concern when I thought of this was yeah how are we going to reach a person that does not have a cell phone so I think that sagap that we need to try to reverse in a way and and I think that we can build over some projects right the other day in the sustainability blockchain Summit I've heard uh there was a girl from Coco I think it's a it's called Coco project or coco and she was working in this ah here you are here great Amazing Project well you should you should ask her and we should bring it to the table this is us this is not me so so let's link that together thank you any other question we have time for last question English or Spanish or thank you very much Agustin amazing talk an amazing job