Our CEO Dr. Jochen Biedermann spoke at a panel on “Blockchain and Climate Finance” at the Climate Innovation Summit in Dublin on 08 November 2018.

Blockchain and Climate Finance
All Sustainable Development Goals have in common that they need available capital to be realized. Current estimates of the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCATD) achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) will cost between US5 to US7 trillion, which leaves a significant financing gap until 2030. At the same time a recent report by the Business & Sustainable Development Commission estimates that achieving the SDGs could open up US12 trillion of market opportunity and 380 million new jobs by 2030.

So, why is it so difficult to finance deep decarbonization initiatives and SDGs related initiatives, if the market potential is so extraordinary?
The SDGs challenge current economic models with regards to putting spotlight on two key questions: (1) How will the world collectively come together and agree on a new economical paradigm that holistically accounts for ecological-, social- and economic value and (2) how will the costs for ecological- and human externalities be shared amongst all. In fact, current economic models are not able to give answers to these questions.

Distributed Ledger Technology (DLT), also referred to as “Blockchain”, has the potential to be such a disruptive solution. While climate change is a truly global problem, it is well recognized that it requires a decentralized, multi-stakeholder, bottom-up approach to be solved, along with an open and transnational platform of existing (carbon markets, taxes, pricing) and evolving climate action instruments (Nationally Determined Contributions). Furthermore, the approach needs to allow for a high level of measurement, reporting, and verification (MRV) and enforce high levels of trust and transparency. DLT is a candidate technology that optimally aligns with these requirements. What are the barriers for mass-adoption of DLT and associated technologies for transforming Climate Finance at scale to accelerate Climate Action? The session will have the focus on how to translate the theory into practice.

Moderator:

Harald Rauter, Regional Innovation Lead DACH Climate-KIC

Panelists:

Bjoern Fischer, CEO EcoKraft
James Close, Director of Climate Change Worldbank and Chair of the Advisory Board of the Blockchain and Climate Institute
Jochen Biedermann, CEO of Blockchain Asia and Coordinator of the SDG Fintech Initiative Frankfurt
Cecilia Repinski, Managing Director of Stockholm Green Digital Finance

Please find here a video of the session as well as further pictures from the conference.