Transforming Climate Finance and Green Investment with Blockchains

Alastair Marke is currently a senior climate finance consultant with a listed company in London. He is a seasoned sustainability policy researcher with publications covering a wide range of policy issues, including food and energy security, climate finance, low-carbon investment planning, emissions trading, and associated green growth issues in Europe, Africa, China, Southeast Asia and Australasia. Seeing the dire need to accelerate global efforts to fill the current climate finance gap, on top of his consultancy work, Alastair has recently created the International Core Group on Blockchain Climate Finance, composed of over 40 experts from 20 countries, to study the potential of Blockchain technology to upscale sustainable, environmental and climate finance for developing countries, encompassing energy finance, carbon trading, and new cryptocurrency-based multi-level climate finance transfer mechanisms.

"Twenty-two papers consider the potential capabilities of Blockchain technology to ameliorate and accelerate climate actions worldwide, focusing on renewable energy deployment, climate finance transfers, emissions management, and green finance law enforcement." --Journal of Economic Literature"The beauty of Transforming Climate Finance & Green Investment with Blockchains is that it brings together top experts from different backgrounds and presents a cohesive, considered and powerful exploration of blockchain’s potential in tackling our planet’s most pressing challenge. It is a must read for those of us involved in financing and putting resources into green investments, because it’s clear that this technology has the potential to positively change the way we work, govern and collaborate in this space." --Andrew Shaw, FMO – The Dutch Development Bank"Blockchain has become a catchword for disruptive innovation in a broad range of issue areas, including climate finance and investment. Frequently invoked and regularly misunderstood, however, this technology and its potential applications to climate change have so far lacked the authoritative scholarly analysis they deserve. By connecting some of the world’s foremost experts on blockchain and the complex environmental challenges it could address, this new book fills an important gap." --Michael Mehling, MIT Center for Energy and Environmental Policy Research"Blockchain technology has significant potential to increase confidence in asset ownership, improve transparency and enhance efficiency and effectiveness in support of the World Bank Group's goal to eradicate extreme poverty. We see interesting applications to accelerate decarbonization and broaden and deepen carbon markets through innovative solutions enabled by blockchain technology. This book is a valuable contribution to a debate which is starting to engage institutions, policy makers and practitioners." --James Close, Director, Climate Change Group, World Bank"Transforming Climate Finance and Green Investment with Blockchains engages numerous experts on the core issues for the application of distributed ledgers and digital innovations to solve global challenges and scale solutions for sustainability. Although the technology is rapidly changing, this book deals with the fundamental issues and systems, such as governance and finance, that also require significant effort to innovate in order for these emerging technologies to come to full fruition." --Tom Baumann, ClimateCHECK "Blockchains, or more broadly distributed ledger technologies, hold a great potential to spur innovation in a wide range of areas including peer-to-peer renewable energy trading, supply chain management, land titles, and climate finance and investments. Transforming Climate Finance and Green Investment with Blockchains can play an important role to raise awareness and to provide in depth academic insights on these emerging [exponential] technologies and their applications in the context of the urgent response needed to address climate change." --Alexandre Gellert Paris, United Nations"No nonsense, hype-free, practical applications of how blockchain could completely transform the way we tackle climate finance. Transforming Climate Finance and Green Investment with Blockchains is a fascinating insight into how blockchain could revolutionise climate finance and can help to make this world a better place to live." --Naseem Naqvi, British Blockchain Association

• Interlude I: How to Read This BookSection 1: Scene-Setting - What’s Going On?1: A Conversation with Dr. Kelce Wilson on the Foundations of the BlockchainJack Aldane2: A Conversation with Masterminds in Blockchain and Climate ChangeAlexander Harris3: Blockchain 101: What is Blockchain and How Does This Revolutionary Technology Work?Sebastien Meunier4: Decoding the Current Global Climate Finance ArchitectureAlastair Marke and Bianca SylvesterInterlude IISection 2: Blockchain for Smarter Renewable Energy Deployment5: How Blockchain can Democratize Global Energy SupplyAdam Woodhall6: How Blockchains Will Industrialize a Renewable GridPaul R. Brody7: Efficient Power Markets: Reimagining the Global Market with EthereumAdam Richard and Rob Hitchens8: Flexibility Trading Platform—Using Blockchain to Create the Most Efficient Demand-side Response Trading MarketPaul Ellis and Joanna Hubbard9: NRGcoin—A Blockchain-based Reward Mechanism for Both Production and Consumption of Renewable EnergyMihail Mihaylov, Iva´n Razo-Zapata and Ann Nowe´Interlude IIISection 3: Blockchain for Smoother International Climate Finance Transfers 13510: Blockchain—Powering and Empowering the Poor in Developing CountriesJane Thomason, Mira Ahmad, Pascale Bronder, Edward Hoyt, Steven Pocock, Julien Bouteloupe, Katrina Donaghy, David Huysman, Tony Willenberg, Ben Joakim, Loretta Joseph, David Martin and David Shrier11:   Disintermediating the Green Climate FundTim Reutemann12:  COCOA—Crowd Collaboration for Climate AdaptationGustavo Arciniegas, Iva´n Razo-Zapata and Cristia´n Retamal Gonza´lez13: Using Smart Algorithms, Machine Learning, and Blockchain Technology to Streamline and Accelerate Dealflow in Climate FinanceNeil Salisbury and Jenya Khvatsky14: Addressing Water Sustainability with Blockchain Technology and Green FinanceAnna PoberezhnaInterlude IVSection 4:  Blockchain for Fraud-Free Emissions Management15: Central Banks and Blockchains: The Case for Managing Climate Risk with a Positive Carbon PriceDelton B. Chen16: Carbon Deposits—Using Soil and Blockchains to Achieve Net-Zero EmissionsEdward Dodge17: Blockchain Ecosystem for Carbon Markets, Environmental Assets, Rights, and Liabilities: Concept Design and ImplementationAnton Galenovich, Sergey Lonshakov and Alexey Shadrin18: How a Blockchain Network Can Ensure Compliance with Clean Development Mechanism Methodology and Reduce Uncertainty about Achieving Intended Nationally Determined ContributionsSteven Dunkel19: Networked Carbon Markets: Permissionless Innovation with Distributed Ledgers?Adrian Jackson, Ashley Lloyd, Justin Macinante and Markus Hu¨wener Interlude VSection 5: Blockchain for Better Green Finance Law Enforcement20:  How to Trust Green Bonds: Blockchain, Climate, and the Institutional Bond MarketsOwen Sanderson21: Utilizing Blockchain for Better Enforcement of Green Finance Law and RegulationsXiaochen Zhang, Matias Aranguiz, Duoqi Xu, Xing Zhang and Xinran Xu22: Blockchain and Smart Contracts: Complementing Climate Finance, Legislative Frameworks, and Renewable Energy ProjectsJames Duchenne