ReFi Roundup #10: Climate Collective Deep Dive, Osmosis goes Carbon Neutral, The Commons Prize Launch Announced
A Deeper Look at Climate Collective; Osmosis Goes Carbon Neutral; Solid World drops a powerful new video
Hello ReFi Friends! 👋
Ben Noel again with this week's edition of the ReFi Roundup newsletter. It's an exciting time to be a part of the #ReFi movement - if you're interested in learning more about ReFi, getting involved in the movement, or have a story you want included in the newsletter, reach out to us @ReFiDAOist!
A Deeper Look at Climate Collective
This week, I thought we could take some time and do a bit of a deep dive into the Climate Collective. Climate Collective is a coalition of companies anchored by Celo working at the intersection of climate and Web3.
Celo is a proof-of-stake layer 1 blockchain with a mission to create an inclusive and prosperous financial system. Climate Collective began as internal effort of the Celo community to fight climate change and has since expanded to include 16 member companies. Some OG ReFi favorites like Toucan and Regen Network are members, as well as newer faces like Flow Carbon, which announced their membership this week.
The goal of Climate Collective is to supply a portion of the Celo Reserve (which backs Celo's stablecoins) with tokenized natural assets. This "natural capital" extends beyond the standard carbon credits and includes things like animal conservation and ocean restoration. The Collective also provides grant funding and community education to continue to grow the ReFi ecosystem; there will be a "ReFi in Action" talk at Celo Connect in Barcelona next month where our very own John Ellison will be speaking!
Several initiatives have already been supported by Climate Collective including the famous Web3 Climate map. As more companies are brought into the Collective, expect to see scale and impact of these initiatives grow tremendously.
Osmosis Goes Carbon Neutral
This week, Osmosis announced that it had offset it carbon footprint with the help of Regen Network. Osmosis is a blockchain built with the Cosmos development kit that allows people to trade IBC-compatible (InterBlockchain Communication Protocol) tokens.
This was the first time a blockchain handled the carbon reduction process entirely on-chain; a proposal to go carbon neutral was submitted to the community, it was subsequently voted on and passed, and then on-chain carbon credits were purchased.
Osmosis offset ten times its estimated carbon emissions. This factor was chosen to protect against any potential under-calculations, but its likely that this offset will actually make Osmosis carbon negative! Blockchains pushing to lower their carbon footprint has been an emergent trend this year, and we are all here for it.
🌱 ReFi Bites 🌱
The Commons Stack announced The Commons Prize
The winner will work with The Commons Stack team over the next year to develop their project.
Check out this ReFi origin story from Ecorise
Ecorise DAO provides a brief history on ReFi and makes the case for John Fullerton as the first solarpunk.
Parker Hughes breaks down the argument for tokenizing carbon
Check out Parker's substack - The ReGen Deep Dive!
adrianxyz talks carbon taxonomy
Adrian discusses the various types and classifications of carbon offsets.
Solid World drops a powerful new video
Solid World's video beautifully sums up what we in the ReFi movement are working towards.
☁️ Outside ReFi ☁️
The US SEC proposes climate disclosures
This week, the US Security and Exchange Commission announced a proposal that would require companies to disclose their emissions as well as how climate change may affect their business.
Disclosure laws have long been in place in parts of Europe, but the US has been slow to come around. All emissions disclosures from corporations in the US to date have been done on a voluntary basis. On the surface it may seem like voluntary disclosure is working fine - over 70% of the S&P 500 companies disclose emissions. But when you move down to smaller companies, the picture is not so rosy - only 28% of S&P mid cap 400 companies report emissions.
It's often said what isn't measured can't be managed. Mandatory emissions disclosures will no doubt be a big step toward addressing climate change.
Say hello! 👋
Thank you for reading 🙏 If you're interested to learn more about ReFi, get involved in the movement, or have any feedback on the newsletter, feel free to reach out to us at the community emerging at @ReFiDAOist for more information!