ReFi Roundup #41: COP27 & Optimism in ReFi

Hello ReFi frens, Nura here with the latest ReFi Roundup. I am working on sustainability tech solutions during the day, and a Climate x Web3 writer @EnjoytheWeather at night.  Let's find out what's gold in the ReFi world this week!

COP27 - Putting ReFi on the map! 🗺️

COP27 is happening this week in Egypt. Climate change is a global coordination problem and COP can be a place to explore systems of coordination and build bridges. It's also the first time ReFi is making it's presence known as part of the solution. Let's dive in to the thinking behind this, what is going down, and which countries are leading the way...

Making the case! 💼

@_newcubes recently wrote an amazing article for Regen Foundation "Community Stake in the New Regenerative Economy → Towards COP27".

It explores Article 6 of the Paris agreement which governs the rule of international carbon markets and was signed in COP26 last year. But what's holding it back? and what is the way forward? 👇

Problem statements:

🔬 Integrity of science and data. It's hard to validate data behind claims of regeneration. Lack of transparency and accountability in the assurance process.

🗣️ Political process: Decisions are made behind closed doors. Local communities are not involved in deciding the future of their own ecosystem

Proposed solutions:

👁️ Freed from carbon tunnel vision. Adopt other metrics such as biodiversity, soil health, and social dimension.

🔍 Decentralized creation, approval, and issuance of eco credits. The process must be viable for smallholder farmers.

🤝 Co-created with communities. Communities must have a say in creating the regenerative system and be involved in the governance.

The Conclusion? --> Traditional climate finance is broken. Web3 has the potential to fundamentally transform the accountability, ownership models, and governance of environmental assets.

On the ground! 🏃‍♀️

So who from ReFi is out there making the case on the ground ? Here are some of the cool things that were happening this week.

HBAR Foundation hosted a ReFi side event. Bringing leading projects such as Filecoin Green and Flowcarbon closer to the policymakers

Climate Coin talks about how crypto can play a role in the blue carbon market.

Climate Chain Coalition (a UN co-lead initiative) held several sessions on the real world application of ReFi.

We are only at the 1st week of COP and already so many things are happening. To keep up to date with ReFI at COP27, follow the list from @RKollegala.

Leading the way! 🚀

With the case for blockchain and Web3 for climate becoming clearer, what countries and jurisdictions are leading the way in implementation?

🇪🇬 Egypt: As the host of this year's COP, Egypt is paving the way for climate innovation. UNDP lab in Egypt is working with SEKEM and Zero Fund to drive the Egypt 2030 vision powered by blockchain infrastructure.

🇮🇩  Indonesia: The Indonesian stock exchange (IDX) is working with a Singaporean startup called MVGX to create a carbon registry and exchange on top of Ethereum.

🇪🇺 EU: Blockchain-based ClimateTrade admitted to European (EEX) mandatory carbon market.

Regardless of latitude or longitude, we need all need to come together, put aside our differences, and work fast on saving the planet and building a better future. Lets make it happen! 🙏

Ocean Metagenomics with New Atlantis DAO 🐠

If Atlantis were a DAO instead of a mythical civilization, it might have been an open platform to regenerate the ocean. That is precisely what New Atlantis DAO is building.

On this week’s episode of the ReFi Podcast, hosts johnx25bd and jE talk about  metagenomics for environmental biodiversity with Courtney and Gordon from New Atlantis DAO. They want to provide Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) a viable business model by launching a data analytics platform to generate blue carbon and biodiversity credits.

Check the pod on youtube or any podcast app of your choice. And read the written summary deep dive here!

The hottest projects in the ReFi space 🔥

Just a year after ReFi was born, various projects are popping up and investments are pouring into the space. Peter Olivier from Undocarbon, recently shared his thought on which projects to support if he were to manage a climate fund.

Shamba + Chainlink for Smallholder Farmers

Our friends at Shamba have integrated with Chainlink to provide data streams that enable parametric insurance for smallholder farmers.

Solarpunk + Human maximalism = Terrapunk? 🧑🏿‍🤝‍🧑🏻

Can we be pro-sustainability & pr0-human at the same time? check out the latest Greenpill podcast on Terrapunk with @nasjaq. A wonderful idea that is optimistic about not just the planet, but also the humanity within it.

Indigenous women fighting for the climate ✊🏽

Each indigenous community is unique, but all of them are facing the same problem. Their way of life is facing a multitude of intertwined challenges.  Learn about the stories of 6 indigenous women leading the movement to fight climate injustice.

Some people are in crypto for the greed, but we stayed for the hope 🟢

We know that it's a tough time for the crypto ecosystem right now. But ReFi is not just about being regenerative but also resilient. We are still very early. Bad days, weeks, and months are nothing if we are working on long term goals such as the 2050 Paris agreement.

Here are some tweets to keep us optimistic to build a better world with cryptoeconomics.

• Regardless of the market, Rene Reinsberg of Celo is lasered focused on his mission.

• Kolektivo showing progress on regeneration, instead of degen doomsday tweets.

• Jamie Burke of outlier ventures reminding us why ReFi is a non-skeumporphic model of the current financial system.

Let's show our support to the whole crypto community. ReFi is a non-zero sum game. More love, more impact!

Looking Forward 📍

Some of the exciting events coming up soon... Make sure to grab some tickets and support the ReFi regenerative renaissance wherever you are from!

Flori Ventures Web 3 x Climate

📅  16th November

Exploring WEB3 Opportunities For Scaling Refi

📅  14th November

Web3 Now: Defi to Refi with Celo

📅  19th November (Bangalore, India)

Descentraliza BH

📅  19th November (Belo Horizonte, Brazil)

ReFi Zürich

📅  26th November (Zurich, Switzerland)

Add your ReFi event! 👇🏽

Got a ReFi, crypto, or climate event coming up and what to have it featured in the newsletter? Add yours to ReFi Spring!

Alongside a coalition of cartographers, ReFi DAO helps to maintain the largest public database of ReFi projects - all viewable through refidao.com. We see new projects flowing into the database daily, here are some that have crossed our radar this week:

• 🛖 Agartha: Part of the ReFi DAO founders circle season 2, Agartha is building a global network of regenerative coliving communities. Aims to develop a platform to find regenerative communities and operate cohort-based community builders.
• ☀️ NRverse: Unlocking the potential of renewables for Web3 applications and beyond. NRverse brings renewable energies into the metaverse for more sustainability in the web3 realm.
• 🖼️ EcoSapiens: Designing Web3 ecosystem to fix the real one. Ecosapiens is  the world's first perpetual carbon-capture NFT. Psst they're hiring, check out the job boards below.

More projects, more impact! the ReFi space is more about building and less about talking. Keep the new projects coming 🚀

Add your ReFi Project! 👇🏽

Have a project you want to add to our list? Click the button below to submit an application to our database!

+ EcoSapiens are looking for —> Chief of staff, VP engineer, and junior fulls-stack engineer (SF / NYC)

Check out more job opportunities from leading ReFi projects on our job board!

A lot of things are happening in the world right now. You have more than a billion choices to read online. Thanks for sticking by the ReFi movement. If you'd like to read more stories on Climate x Web3, check out my blog here.

Have a great weekend with your loved ones! Peace ✌️

Enjoyed this newsletter?

We would be super grateful if you could help spread the word of ReFi by clicking the button below:

Where always trying to evolve and improve our newsletter, any feedback would be greatly appreciated! 👇