In the last few episodes of the NatureBacked podcast, we have been speaking on a wide variety of #naturepositive topics - ranging from climate-positive bitcoin mining to an environmental education centre in Northern England to replacing ExxonMobiles of this world in sustainable investment portfolios.
Check out the fresh episodes:
🎙️E55: Going Local with Adam Beaumont
🎙️E56: Carbon Negative Bitcoin Mining?! With Sazmining
🎙️E57: Turning Investment Portfolios Green With Peter Krull
"The climate change train has already left the station. We need to invest in companies that are creating more resiliency in our economies,” said investment advisor Peter Krull from Earth Equity Advisors in the latest episode.
“We don't have to accept less bad. We can just simply make transitions,” he said, meaning that instead of following ESG principles and cutting an oil company stock from 2.5% weight in the portfolio to 1.5%, it should be replaced with a solar technology share completely.
Krull had a rather clear position on carbon offsets and their uselessness for making the world better, while he also said that reaching climate targets in 2050 would be "too late".
“The 2030 goal is great, but for the most part, it's just sort of everybody saying that's really going to be 2050, but 2030 is what we put on the surface to make it look good. And 2050 is too late, 2030 really is where we need to start hitting some of these targets,” Krull said.
Krull's comments echoed the episode from a year earlier with Hampus Jakobsson from Pale blue dot -- it's definitely worth checking out again.
🎙️E8: Finding Radical Climate Solutions with Pale Blue Dot's Hampus Jakobsson
Carbon-negative Bitcoins?!
I thought it was impossible, but in E56 Sazmining introduced its platform for green, even carbon-negative, Bitcoin mining. Looking at the big picture, the environmental effects of Bitcoin are considerable, partly due to the use of also electricity from gas and coal-fired power plants.
However, replacing the energy source, and working also with methane could turn the situation upside down, said founder William Szamosszegi.
"We think that the future is a green future, in terms of where money is going to go, and where development is going to go. And then simultaneously, I'm very, very bullish on the future of digital assets, particularly when I say digital assets, I mean, Bitcoin, especially with a lot of the fractures being seen in the banking system today," Szamosszegi said.
The Eden of North
When Eden Project North, an environmental visitor attraction in northern England, opens in a few years, a lot of the work will be done by local enterprises, said Prof Adam Beaumont, trustee and non-executive director at Eden.
The project will be located at Morecambe, once a thriving coastal town, which has lost a lot of its holiday travellers to southern competition.
"When we announced that we intended to create this Eden Project, we got a standing ovation from the locals. This is going to stimulate a whole lot of economic growth not just in Morecambe but across the north," said Beaumont in an interview on the sidelines of sTARTUp Day in Tartu.
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