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