This episode follows Richard Barker’s thought provoking TEDTalk and shines a light on possible radical solutions that can unlock the trillions of dollars tied in pension funds for long term sustainable investments. 

Richard Barker is an Adviser and Investment Committee Member at Iona Capital, a specialist environmental infrastructure investor. He has been active in the low carbon space for over a decade having previously been CEO of the UK’s leading biogas company and also CEO of France’s largest aluminium recycling company. He is a member of Al Gore’s Climate Reality Leadership Corps.

Highlights of the podcast:

• Why there is enough wealth in the world to address climate change
• How a pay cheque to owners of big oil assets can be a solution to climate change
• Why the finance sector is not fit for purpose and how to fix this
• Why we should pay more attention to the opportunities than the cost of climate action
• Effective climate action for individuals, employees, businesses and governments
• What we can learn from organ donation to change people’s psychology

“What Abolition of Slavery tells us about Climate Change” TEDTalk: https://youtu.be/3NI-j8sDKno
Iona Capital: https://www.ionacapital.co.uk/
Richard Barker’s Linkendin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/richard-barker-78b97428/

The risk of crossing a tipping point leading to ecosystem collapse is clear to Alan, and having spent years mapping climate risk he came to conclude that it is his life commitment to take systemic climate action.

“After many false starts I believe it’s time for a new approach to carbon, to reinvent carbon markets and the overall idea is very simple. Every organisation manages financial capital. It also manages human capital. Finally, every organisation should also manage natural capital.” 

Lykke is a marketplace for free exchange of financial assets. Their mission is huge, with a fully open-sourced platform, they see a future where natural capital is fully tokenized and protection of natural resources is incentivised. 

​Alan explains how blockchain technology is uniquely positioned to disrupt financial markets which is full of intermediaries, such as brokers and banks. Bringing in high frequency trading algorithms into marketplaces like Lykke will bring liquidity to the natural capital markets.  

Lykke listed TREE, the first natural capital backed cryptocurrency where anyone can invest into preservation of our planet.  By owning one TREE token, you participate in the movement of preserving one of the most valuable plants of Myanmar, the mangrove.

Connect with Alan Laubsch: https://www.linkedin.com/in/alanlaubsch/
Alan interview on Lykke: https://www.lykke.com/city/blog/team-interview-alan
Tree Tokens:  http://tree-volution.com/
Tree Tokens on Lykke: https://www.lykke.com/how-to-buy-world-view-tree
Thor Heyerdahl Climate Park: http://www.wif.care/heyerdahl-climate-parks/

​​Scott Nelson explains this once in a lifetime opportunity of how this blockchain future will create a level playing field for everyone by reducing the cost of capital. Scott was on a beach in Hawaii after selling his logistic payment platform company and was concerned that the blockchain pioneers might not know how to develop a good financial system of the future.
 
Sweetbridge is a blockchain operating system and they will be releasing a wallet and a loan product alongside their cryptocurrency. They are actively engaging their community, working with regulators, governments, municipalities and early adopters excited to test out their game changing platform.
 
With a background in technology, finance and supply chain Scott Nelson has a unique experience to help build a more efficient financial system. Scott talks about his motivation and the challenges of running a blockchain organisation and how this could become a #GameChanger for our world..

Connect with Scott Nelson on Linkedin here.

Erwin is a busy man, having co-founded both Grid Singularity, which runs a blockchain peer-to-peer energy platform and the Energy Web Foundation, an open sourced platform designed to create a unified standard to make energy data more usable, as well as being part of the team that made EventHorizon happen.  Therefore, he is well placed to give an overview of blockchain for energy.
 
Erwin explains that in Europe, governments are expecting the energy transition to happen at a consumer level as current approach of building big wind farms are starting to cause problems to the energy grid. In the developing world, with 2 billion people without electricity, solar and small batteries along with blockchain technology is expected to accelerate the creation of local energy markets with invoicing capability.
 
He also shares his personal journey of more than 2 decades in the energy sector and why innovation in the energy sector and the purpose of reducing environmental impact inspires him.
 
* a prosumer is both a consumer and producer of energy
 
Erwin Smole on Linkedin.

The Sun Exchange’s vision is enable Africa to leapfrog into a new clean energy future using a blockchain enabled crowdfunding platform. Their solution enables anyone, anywhere in the world, to buy and lease solar assets to power villages starting in South Africa.

Abe talks about how solar energy is the most distributed and democratic source of energy and why the openness and transparency is key to making their platform work.   Abe also shared on how a change in market conditions and his experience running a solar installation cooperative in Cornwall, UK lead to the founding of The Sun Exchange.

Connect with Abraham Cambridge on linkedin.