Making CLIMATE MARKETS more TRANSPARENT through technology Francisco Benedito TBCY

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Welcome to another episode of The Brand Called  You. A vodcast and podcast show that brings you   leadership lessons, knowledge, experience and  wisdom from hundreds of successful individuals   from around the world. I am your host, Ashutosh  Garg and today I have with me, a very, very   accomplished entrepreneur in the area of climate  and climate change. Mr. Francisco Benedito from  

Spain. Fran, welcome to the show. Thank you so much for inviting me. Thank you. Fran is the CEO of Climate Trade. He is  the co founder of Climate Coin. He was awarded as   the best organization for decarbonizing the travel  industry. And he has been voted amongst the top   100 SDG influencers. So Fran, let's talk about  climate trade. Tell me about this venture. Well, climate trade is a marketplace focused  on the climate space, we detected back in 2017,   there were so many efficiencies in the carbon  markets. And well, we can call it climate markets,   because it's not only about carbon. And  basically, what we found out is that  

we could apply technology to make more  of these more efficient, more transparent   and more traceable. Okay. So that's when we create the platform. Basically, climate   trade is a marketplace where we put in touch  developers of climate related projects worldwide,   with corporations around the world in order to  be able to offset their carbon footprint or by   climate related products and services. So basically, for you to see carbon markets, which is important for the people  to understand what is climate trade. 

So basically, carbon markets are built  back in 1997, in the UN in one of the   events that the UN makes every year they  come. So in that fifth one, it was in Japan. So  it was called creating what is called the protocol   Kyoto. So basically, the carbon credits were  created in order to incentivize the generation of   projects and be able to fund projects all around  the world in order to decarbonize the planet.  

So basically, a company that is polluting  in let's say, a developed country or like economies that are more or advanced,  these companies need to pay for the pollution,   where, to companies that do the opposite in  emerging markets. Why is this because normally   emerging markets do not have funding for, let's  say, funding that project. So, we bring the thing   to the companies that are polluting and so we  measure these on tons of CO2, every ton of CO2   emitted is one carbon credit. So, what we do is we  put in touch the people that is making projects,   reforestation, renewable projects, all these  generate mitigations and avoidance of CO2,   and they sell that to the companies  that do the opposite that pollute.  

Basically, we create a marketplace that we put in  touch both and we get a fee per transaction. Wonderful. So, for my viewers and listeners, help  me understand with a few examples, which are   some of the kinds of businesses that are climate  negative and some which are climate positive. Like basically, imagine the most polluting sectors  in the world are our oil companies. Airline sector  

is very, very relevant also, transportation,  fashion. So basically, today, in terms of sector   that we are working with that we can say the  financial industry is is very advanced on these   and the most straightforward in terms to  become a carbon neutral, at the end to save   carbon negative or carbon positive. It  requires a little bit more not only being carbon   neutral. So, I mean for you to see for the audience to see and to hear   is basically you have a target now, so the  companies, thanks to Paris Agreement, you have a   target towards 2050. Or before, like the companies  and governments need to achieve zero emissions   specially the government's by 2050. So obviously,  that comes to the companies and there is a strong   regulations in Europe coming up on that part. So basically the companies established  

target to achieve Net Zero. So philosophical question for you.   if I am  a company, which is releasing   a lot of pollution and carbon  negative in the environment,   but I make a lot of money, I can buy credits,  and continue to do all the negative things. Well, that's not going to happen. And I explain  you why. I mean, there are two things. That's why   we created the climate trade. Now, basically,  climate three uses blockchain technology to   provide transparency and traceability. So when you do an offset,   when you buy an offset, the most important part  is to know two things. One is that effectively,  

that offset is a high quality offset. That  is being canceled, it's been   put under your name in terms of my tone is being  put in under my name for real. And that's what in the past was called double counting,  because people were selling several times the   same. But the most important part is to know  that the fans are going to the developer,  

because he's is the one that is making the  efforts to do that. And I'll go to your point.   I mean, if I'm a company that I'm polluting, first  thing, we need to know if that company is doing   greenwashing originally. So for that  is important for is transparency, traceability,   I want the fans to see the fans that go to  the developer, pay the fair price to   the developer, that's very important. Because  if you develop a project, you waste your money,  

you invest your money, and then you don't have any  return. We are not saving the planet. No, we are   not making the force on that side. But  second thing that is important is your question.   The regulations, and consumers and investors are  not gonna let these companies to do that. I mean,   the investors are putting pressure in listed  companies to do things correctly. Because if not,   the investors of that investors will  pour money on their investment funds,   you know, and consumer's the same. Wonderful, wonderful.   So based on all your experience, what are some of the key challenges we face   with regard to climate change? Always has been about finance. So  

it is I mean, I was happy  to hear about Elon Musk. So weirdly,   most of us admire. And we hear that they  were saying, Okay, why don't you pay from your   fortune? These many millions 1000s, I don't know  how much the amount exactly what it was.

6 billion. So it was 6 billion. So   they were saying okay, well, then you basically  say, okay, how can I know where my money is going?   That's traceability. That's transparency. I  mean, if we get that, that's blockchain, that's why we use blockchain for this. I want to  know where my money is going, I want to see how  

much positive impact my money generate,  I don't want my money to go to the pocket   of an inefficient government or  whatever. So that's the thing. So the problem   of the world is we need to put the  money in the right places to generate a positive   impact. But that's why we created the organization,  we want to help technologies, projects that can   be a scale up with not only finance, guidance,  and like we are helping companies that do not   have any commercial power, like we do.  But they are brilliant technologies, or   scientists that we are helping to grow that  technology. So basically we need that. And you know, the world is going through a  pandemic, almost two years now, it is often said   that the pandemic has given earth time to heal.  And therefore, a lot of the climate change problems   have now been resolved. I'd love to  get your perspective that you know,  

the planet is able to heal itself. But then we  as humans come and mess it up every time. That's exactly like that.  I mean, as soon as we get I mean,   the only good thing we had about the pandemic  is that some people change his mindset.  

In my opinion, the only thing like we saw this as  an advice for what is about to come. So if that is   helping us to change our mindset to recycle  more, do not drop waste anywhere, to behave   more to do more. I always say that is a smaller  force by any one of us. I mean, I'm doing the   right things in my whole day, in terms of  recycling, in terms of not using the energy, I'm   not wasting energy in terms of many other things.  But really healing the planet,   it didn't happen, because at the moment, we start  again, we started faster, because knew we need to   recover all that time that we lost. So it  goes faster, and you can see it in the   different things happen in the planet  since then no in terms of economically. So I now   know, it didn't heal. But I think that I'm positive in terms of that change of mindset  

for some part of the planet. So, you know, Fran, you mentioned that in climate   trade, you also monitor different organizations  about how they are performing. Yeah. Over the   years, have you started to see an improvement in  top management's about climate change problems. Of course, this has changed  radically. I mean, especially in Europe, there   are regulations that are asking the companies  to report every year about sustainability, like   the listed companies pretty much do all around  the world. And there is also regulations that are  

coming to the countries regarding the investments,  when you go to a bank, they ask you, if you want   your fund to be sustainable. And there are  ratings on all the companies, there are software's   that make the rating, so every or asset manager now is using or is starting   to use a rating for the companies that he's  analyzing in order to include in his portfolio.   So that's super important, and that's a change  that is gonna make, it's gonna pay. And at  

the end, we will go more and more and more  on that on that part. I even say that, then   I'm positive on that, that every quarter as  we look the results of the companies, we will   look more to the ESG results than to the monetary  results of a company, it is important for a company to make more money every quarter.  Well, I don't know. I mean, Warren Buffett   doesn't think so, he knows a little bit about  this. And I mean, I think our company has to do,  

well, obviously has to give money back to the  shareholders, but they cannot do and we   can jump over ESG indicators. And that's  going to get more weight every time. Interesting. So my next question to you is  that, you know, the younger generation in our world, the millennials, and the Gen Z's,  are already very conscious about climate change.   And they're also very conscious  about buying products from companies,   which are conscious about climate change.  Based on all the work that you do,   how can each one of us make our service  more accountable, and protect our planet? Totally agree with you. I mean, consumers are not  consumers anymore, are prosumers. So we determined   what our brand at the end we'll be doing,  because of our consumer behaviors, and the   young generations have it in the DNA, you know,  so that, which is something I'm very happy for.  

At least we did something well in terms of that change. And   like, in terms of what we can do, I mean, at  the end, first thing is learning. I mean,   we need to learn about how things work in terms of  how the balances work and what the pain   we are doing with behaviors you have we  have daily., I mean, it is better to I mean,   obviously, everybody now is acknowledging  that they have to buy renewable power for their   houses and is the first thing that people is doing  and it's not still massive, but many people is   calling the electric power and say, hey, I want my  power to be a green. I don't have Okay, I'll move  

to another company. So that's things that  we can do even with small companies paid on rapid. And then obviously recycle. Don't throw waste anywhere you go. I mean,   we see beaches, we see all areas of the sea that  are full of garbage now and then do things that   we are today, behaving like buying  plastics out of things that today I was   talking to my wife this morning and say  we were eating pineapple and say, Hey,   why are we buying packaged pineapple? Why  are not we buying a pineapple, carrot and then   putting it in something so it doesn't  get oxidated. But I recycle the   plastic when it comes to pineapple. Yeah, but  still, you're building that plastic. So we   have to be more rational about all the process  of the things that we do during the day. What a great example. Thank you. So let's talk a little bit about ClimateCoin.  

You know, you're the co founder of climate  coin, and your currencies are, you know, shaking   the entire world. Tell me a little bit about  climate coin. And what was the background? Very happy to do that. I mean the background is for you to see the picture.   I was a banker for 15 years. At the  same time, I created my first company when I was   16 years old. So my passion was  there, still. And so I been in one of the   leading technology banks in the world and working for as I said, as a regional manager   at some point. And I became one of the early  let's say, not experienced, but acknowledges   of a blockchain the European Union at the very  beginning with a Bitcoin and so I started to get   technology is one of my passions,  technology innovations and all that. So  

I saw a huge strength coming in 2016 about  climate, and like, you know, that stand for   speech about Steve Jobs, putting the dots  together, it happened. It happened   because my daughter was coming. My one of the  people that was working with me in the bank,   that is my partner, Pedro, from the very  beginning, his daughter was coming at the same   age, it was like, two months difference. And we  say, we got to do something. And we say, Okay,   why don't we put apply technology to climate?  And let's bring innovations and let's fund   that innovation to say, why don't we create a  climate coin? So we registered the climate coin   worldwide, the brand, and we started to work to  marketize that. But the reality was that   the world was not ready yet for that. It was too  early. Even we have some inconveniences with  

let's say, regulators and  wanting to be asked to be regulated and all that,   it was too early, there was the things were not  regulated as they are today. So from that we learn a lot in terms of what  we had to do then with the climate trade when   the companies wanted, they didn't want to work  with a token, was too early also. So what   we did is we we said okay, let's stop it a  little bit. And let's come back whenever the world   is ready. So climate coin is relaunching on  April this year. So now, pretty much  

everyone knows, as in the climate space, we know  pretty much everyone in the climate space also.   And we have surround ourselves from the biggest  professionals in the climate world, which is,   for example, the CEO is going to be Pedro Ramon,  which is one of the influential leaders my   partner from the beginning and  together with him, he's going to be one of the   most important persons in the  financial climate space today, who is leaving his   position to become the CEO of ClimateCoin. So  that will be announced at the end of February.   And we will be launching what is  called Green Climate Dao, you can   check it in greenclimatedao.com or in climatecoin.com. And it will be relaunched in Miami,   April 22, Earth Day. And we already have several countries that are  

supporting us in order to use climate coin to fund  their mitigations, the carbon mitigations.   So yeah, very excited of what is coming. My apologies. Go ahead. Climate coin is an asset backed token. So basically, when you  buy a climate coin, you buy a carbon credit,   you can, let's say, not only invest in that  project that you are supporting, but at the   same time, like one product that generates  carbon credits, you have a carbon grade in your   hands, in your cell phone, in your wallet. So you  can experiment, the increase in price on carbon,   or you can compensate your carbon footprint  when you want.

So I have time for one more  question. And I want to ask you that.   You know, when you're talking about climate  trade, you're talking of companies being   able to buy and sell carbon credits.  Yes. Are you saying that climate coin   could become the currency in which  organization can trade carbon credits? Basically, we are trying to  do, we were working, we have been working   for six months with one of the biggest consulting  firms in the world in order to developwhat is   going to be the strategy paper, the white paper of  the company that will be released soon, and   what kind of coin and there are different phases  of the project in different years, because, as we   said, we learn that the world has to be ready  for certain things. But yes, I mean, when you   hold a climate coin, you hold carbon, and  with that carbon, you can do several things.

And one thing is offsetting your organization  or your carbon footprint as a citizen.   Another thing is, obviously, you want to value the  price of carbon whenever it's going up, because we   expect to go up the carbon exponentially  or you can use it to pave, why not. And how large and this is my last  question to you. How large is the market  

for carbon credits in the world? It has increased since  2017, fivefold. So   five times and at the moment, we are  talking about billions of tonnes every year.   But I couldn't say exactly the amount, its more than 30 billion today, broadly. Wow. But I   couldn't say exactly. Understand. On that note, Fran, thank you so   much for speaking to be. Thank you for talking  to me about climate trade, about climate coin,

about all the challenges that are being faced by  our Earth because of climate and how so many   people are working so hard to mitigate the risks  of climate change on our earth and what you're   doing, to be able to keep most of us sane and on  track to make sure that we don't mess up Mother   Earth. Thank you again and good luck. Thank you so much for your invitation.   It's been a pleasure. Thank you. Thank you for listening to The Brand Called You,  videocast and podcast. A platform that brings you  

knowledge, experience and wisdom of hundreds of  successful individuals from around the world.   Do visit our website, www.tbcy.in  to watch and listen to the stories of many more individuals. You can also follow us on  YouTube, Facebook, Instagram and Twitter. Just   search for The Brand Called You

2022-02-06

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