FTX is now fully carbon neutral and plans to spend at least $1m a year on it
Source: FTX
We are pleased to announce the official launch of FTX Climate
The FTX Foundation's mission is to live in a world where everyone has the same opportunities. Unfortunately, climate change is and will be a major threat to this ideal. Everyone cares about climate change for different reasons, so we are happy to do our part.
The core concept of FTX Climate:
1. Climate change affects everyone, and we all need to be concerned about it;
2. The people affected by climate change are the countless future generations who currently have no voice on this issue, and who are the least responsible for it.
3. This is a solvable problem, and the biggest solution will not be achieved through personal sacrifice.
First, it is important to note that we do not see ourselves as leading authorities on the environment or climate change. With this in mind, we are grateful for the many expert suggestions we have received and hope to continue to receive as we implement this plan. Our plans will continue to be released as new information comes in.
Having the resources to launch this kind of program is a unique opportunity without the limitations of a typical company. We don't have large manufacturing plants, massive global freight emissions, supply chains to review, or any of the standard internal processes that other companies would normally start. This allows us to open our eyes and look for the most impactful actions in the world, regardless of where and how.
The thrust of the plan is to focus on the most influential solutions. The changes required for this approach are huge, and arguing about which straw to use to drink iced coffee won't accomplish our goals.
Our initial plans include:
1. This year we want to achieveCarbon neutralCommitment.
2. Funding research that we believe will have a profound impact;
3. Support carbon removal solutions to help accelerate growth;
4. Special projects.
Carbon neutral
On the face of it, FTX has no direct impact on global climate change. We have no factories or global shipping, no supply chain or physical products, only a few small rented offices around the world, and we also operate online.
However, we do operate in the cryptocurrency industry. In this industry, a large amount of energy is used for major blockchain mining. We understand why, and what bitcoin has done for the world. But the energy and environmental costs of protecting the Bitcoin network can be decouped, and we look forward to seeing a future where mining can rely on better power sources without sacrificing security.
Our plan was initially inspired by SBF's Twitter posts and later updated by FTX's official account.
Both for the immediate benefits of cryptocurrencies and to set a precedent for other exchanges and companies in the sector, we have decided to include the energy used in mining in our carbon neutrality goals.
It is important to estimate this: mining is decentralized; No one knows exactly how much electricity is produced by each source; There is no principled system for assigning responsibility for mining-related pollution to one company that sends out the withdrawals. Even if everything is crystal clear, the cryptocurrency ecosystem is dynamic, and things can change dramatically from month to month.
According to our current estimate, we consider the environmental costs of mining to be us $1 million.And we did: we bought a total of 100,000 tons of carbon offsets through BurnStoves and Pachama for $1,016,000.
Research and Policy
When we launched the FTX Climate initiative, it was great to see how many smart and enthusiastic people were working in this area. There are plenty of free resources to learn about almost anything about the environment or climate change. In deciding where to start, we often see billions of dollars pouring into climate change headlines, but we also note that many organizations have limited funds. We believe that the work of these organizations can make a significant difference and will do much better than spending money directly on this issue.
Giving Green
We find that in the world of climate change, it is easy to find information about current events and problems, but hard to find sound advice on how best to help. We could not find clear recommendations or compelling arguments to guide the most effective donor offices for the general public, or for medium-sized foundations like ours. We couldn't find an organization like The Perfect GiveWell to recommend and persuade us where to allocate funds.
We have donated $100,000 to Giving Green to help it grow into a solution to this problem. Incubated by ID Insights, Giving Green is a small team of several very motivated individuals who try to research and recommend the best things your money can do for the environment. Sites like GiveWell have helped put hundreds of millions of dollars to great use, and we're looking forward to seeing Giving Green play a role in climate change.
Amount: $100,000
Status: Paid
Website: https://www.givinggreen.earth/
Twitter: @ GivingGreenE
CarbonPlan
CarbonPlan is a group of experts with expertise spanning environmental science, law and policy. Not only do they assist companies like Stripe and Microsoft in conducting public reviews of their climate plans, they also found $400 million in excess credits in California's carbon offsetting program, and have been releasing free information and tools to help people like us think like experts on carbon-related issues. We are excited about the work they are doing and believe that providing information to decision makers and people like us can have a huge impact. Advice through their website tools to get to know more details: https://carbonplan.org/research
We are also pleased to see that they are committed to providing services to the public free of charge. These public goods are extremely valuable and we are happy to do our part to help.
Amount: $200,000
Status: Paid
Website: https://carbonplan.org/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/carbonplanorg
Good Food Institute
While most climate change discussions focus on energy, food production produces about 18 percent of all greenhouse gases each year. This includes deforestation, the release of large amounts of methane into the atmosphere, and the overall challenge as the world's population and wealth grow. There is also the possibility that antibiotic resistance will actually develop, with dire implications for modern medicine.
We believe there is important work to be done in this area and believe GFI can play a role in large-scale reform. GFI acts as an integration hub to accelerate the adoption of animal alternatives through research, policy proposals, community initiatives and support for fair competition policies.
Food and the individual and the culture are intimately connected, and we are pleased to see that GFI is working to improve the quality of different choices, rather than opposing them. If their work is completed successfully, the flavor and price of the meat substitutes will be similar to existing meat products, and the public will be able to freely choose meals that replace animal products.
Amount: $250,000
Status: Paid
Website: https://gfi.org/
Twitter: @ GoodFoodInst
Mr Honnold foundation
Here are the Honnold Foundation's ongoing Ceibo Alliance partnership and some images from the Ecuadorian Amazon region.
amazon
We are pleased to announce our partnership with the Honnold Foundation to make a multi-year commitment to Amazon and the people who live in it.
The Honnold Foundation was founded about 10 years ago by Alex Honnold to bring solar power to those who need it most. At a time of dire need, THE FTX Climate Project does not believe in taking the long way around solutions to bring about the needed change, so we were pleased to hear Alex share similar views in his previous interview discussing the foundation. He describes in detail his experience of seeing similar needs in people all over the world, and how unreasonable it is for us to expect them to sacrifice their interests, especially when rich countries simply do not make such sacrifices.
In discussing their work with the Foundation's directors, Dory and Kate, we were pleased to see the factors they considered in their selection and implementation. Obviously there is a lot of concern and respect for the communities that they work with, so we feel we can trust them to carry out these projects.
We are committed to provide $250,000:
$50,000 immediately to replenish its Ceibo alliance program.
Another $100,000 in 2022, fully funding a new solar project at Amazon.
Another $100,000 in 2023 to fully fund amazon's second solar project.
Remove carbon
In the past 10 years, renewable energy has made great strides. For any buyer worried about the cost, solar has gone from an unreasonable price many times higher than normal energy to almost the cheapest. Renewable energy is so well developed that in many areas it costs more to keep a coal-fired power plant running than to build a new source of renewable energy.
These are developments that excite us, because they mean making choices that are better for the planet, without sacrificing. This is the trigger point for large-scale systemic solutions to be implemented, and the moment when the burden of justifying choices shifts from being green to being anti-green.
One of the emerging areas that we think can play an important role in addressing climate change is permanent carbon removal. The ability to capture and store carbon, just as we have been extracting and releasing it from the ground for the past 200 years, could play an important role in mitigating and even reversing climate change. However, there is currently no solution to do this on a global scale or at a viable cost.
We have committed $1,000,000 to permanent carbon capture and storage.
We're still exploring the best options and talking to the top companies in the field about efficiency, but we're going to spend $1 million. Permanent capture and storage is currently 50-100 times more expensive than conventional carbon offsets, and often several times more expensive than the most aggressive carbon taxes. We expect a huge change in cost and efficiency over the next 10 years, and we want this million dollars to help make it a global solution.
Learning resources for further understanding climate change
If you want to learn more about climate-related topics, here are some of our favorite resources:
Carbon Brief
This is a great site for all topics and news related to climate. Carbon in the name, but also climate science, energy and policy.
News & have spent
All major news outlets now have climate blocks. These are usually well done, and most have excellent graphical teams that make them enjoyable to scroll through when you don't want to delve into the topic.
For example: New York Times Climate feature, Washington Post Climate feature
podcast
How To Save The Planet is a great podcast for absorbing information on climate topics. Advice ranges from "Is your carbon footprint bullshit? (Is Your carbon Footprint BS?) The beginning of this episode is a good example.
My Climate Journey is also a great podcast that's worth listening to. The host, a climate-focused venture capitalist, interviewed a wide variety of people. Don't be fooled by the name, as most episodes have nothing to do with their climate travel.
The book
It depends on what interests you, but here are a few books worth starting with:
Bren Smith - Eat Like A Fish
Leah Stokes, Short Circuiting Policy
And Saul Griffith's Electrify Everything, which hasn't come out yet but we're looking forward to reading.
And a video that we have to talk about
We expect FTX Climate to cost at least $1 million per year. So far this year, we've spent $1,616,000, and another $1.2 million on long-term initiatives for the climate environment.
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