Francisco Benedito, CEO ClimateTrade, Co-Founder, ClimateCoin
Francisco Benedito is the CEO of ClimateTrade and the co-founder of ClimateCoin. He has been awarded as the best organisation for decarbonizing the travel industry. He has also been voted amongst the top 100 SDG influencers.
Podcast
Overview
In 1997, in the UN event, Carbon Credits were created in order to incentivise projects all around the world to decarbonize the planet. Basically, if a company is polluting in a developed country, they need to pay for the pollution to the companies which do the opposite in the emerging markets. This is measured on the basis of carbon emission. Every ton of Co2 emitted is one Carbon Credit which a company has to buy.
The companies emitting pollution pay to the companies which are running climate positive projects like reforestation, renewable projects etc.
Climate Markets and Carbon Markets are the platforms where these exchanges take place. One such marketplace is ClimateTrade, where developers of climate related projects from all around the world get in touch in order to be able to offset their carbon footprint and buy climate related products.
In 2017, our guest for this episode of The Brand Called You, Francisco Benedito detected some inefficiencies in the existing climate market. It was found out that one can apply technology to make these markets more transparent and traceable. This is why ClimateTrade was created as a platform which uses blockchain technology to provide transparency and traceability in the climate trade transactions.
Francisco Benedito is the CEO of ClimateTrade and the co-founder of ClimateCoin. He has been awarded as the best organisation for decarbonizing the travel industry. He has also been voted amongst the top 100 SDG influencers.
Can a financially rich company buy carbon credits and continue its negative activities?
On being asked if a financially rich company can buy carbon credits and continue negative activities, Francisco straight away denies. He tells us that ClimateTrade uses blockchain technology which provides transparency and fine traceability of the funds.
Key challenges faced with regard to climate change
Francisco tells us that the biggest challenge faced with regard to climate change is finance. Earlier people did not get information about how their money is being used to create a positive impact on the climate. However, with the introduction of blockchain technology in climate markets, this situation is better.
Francisco’s views on COVID lockdown being a benefit to the planet
Francisco believes that the only positive thing about the pandemic is that it has changed people’s mindsets. People are more aware about recycling and keeping the surroundings clean etc. However, about healing the planet, Francisco believes that once we start again, it is going to be back to what it was before the pandemic.
What can an individual do to protect the environment?
- In Francisco’s opinion, the first step towards protecting the environment is obtaining knowledge of how things work and how to maintain balance with nature.
- He takes the example of how many people are now willing to go with renewable energy alternatives for electricity.
- He also advises recycling as much as possible.
- He advises not to throw waste randomly anywhere.
ClimateCoin
Francisco used to work for a high-tech bank. He is very passionate about technology. Due to his high interest in technology, he became an early acknowledger of blockchains in the European Union. In 2016, climate change was in trend. At that time Francisco, with his and his friend’s daughter, thought of putting climate and technology together. They decided to bring innovation. To fund that innovation they created ClimateCoin. However, Fransisco found out that it was too early for them to do it. At that time, they put a pause on it and decided to relaunch it when the world is ready.
The good news is that ClimateCoin is going to be relaunched by April this year.
Profile
Co-founded Climatecoin in 2017 and later ClimateTrade in 2018.
ClimateTrade marketplace (Climatetrade.com)
received recently the prize of the UNWTO as the best solution in the world for decarbonising the travel industry (Sdg13)
CLIMATECOIN received the prize as one of the best solutions for the new Carbon Markets post2020 by UN in the World Economic and Social Survey 2018 report: https://dailyhodl.com/2019/01/20/united-nations-calls-bitcoin-and-crypto-new-frontier-in-finance-explores-ripple-and-iota-technologies/
Our purpose is to create an exponential organization focused on Sustainability.
There are disruptive technologies and systems which with the right investment and guidance can be exponential to tackle climate change and SDG goals.
Fluent in 6 languages, I have been working as a banker for more than 15 years.
