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Insurtech Lemonade has launched its blockchain- and stablecoin-based parametric climate risk insurance in Kenya's Taita Taveta County. 6,000 insurance policies were issued by the Lemonade Crypto Climate Coalition, constituted as a decentralized autonomous organization (DAO) on Avalanche, an eco-friendly proof-of-stake blockchain. Farmers sign on their feature phones on which they also pay their insurance premiums using stablecoins or local currencies to cover their entire crop against drought and flood. When the season is over, parametric weather results are gathered and payouts are automatically made to farmers in drought or flood affected areas, with no claims filing process. https://investor.lemonade.com/news-and-events/news/news-details/2022/The-Lemonade-Foundation-Turns-to-Blockchain-to-Protect-Subsistence-Farmers-from-Climate-Change/default.aspx

Bitcoin mining consumed enough electricity last year to release carbon emissions on a par with Estonia, according to a study that suggests the climate change impact of the crypto-asset is not as bad as previously thought.

"USD650bn of the International Monetary Fund's synthetic currency, the Special Drawing Rights (SDRs), today hits the balance sheets of IMF members as a response to the pandemic. The scramble to leverage this allocation for development and climate change underlines how far from the SDR's original purpose-as the elastic provision of global liquidity-we have traveled. Yet the emergence of cryptocurrency technology suggests ways the SDR could be revamped for the global challenges ahead. With imagination and ambition, such a revamp would allow developing economy savings to be channeled into productive investments rather than financing the US current account. This would be a genuine watershed in the fight against climate change."

The Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) launched a S$1.75 million MAS Global FinTech Innovation Challenge to seek innovative solutions that can help financial institutions respond to COVID-19 and climate change challenges. It will be hosted entirely on the API Exchange (APIX), a cloud-based innovation platform, which will allow these solutions to be curated, contextualised, and validated.

Atlas Capital Team LP is working to develop a suite of financial products including a tokenized asset backed by real assets - a mix of short-term U.S. Treasuries, gold and U.S. property that's expected to be less affected by climate change. The plan is to build an index and offer total return swaps to large investors, before expanding to an exchange-traded fund and eventually offering a tokenized version. Chief Economist Nouriel Roubini said that a tokenized security will create a "digital rail" to reach a larger swath of people without access to stable currencies.

Bangladesh could benefit from the use of insurance and reinsurance structures including catastrophe bonds as a way to secure much needed capacity enabling it to better respond to natural disasters and climate related risks, according to the International Monetary Fund (IMF).

The Sustainable Development Goals are the blueprint to achieve a better and more sustainable future for all. They address the global challenges we face, including those related to poverty, inequality, climate change, environmental degradation, peace and justice. The 17 Goals are all interconnected, and in order to leave no one behind, it is important that we achieve them all by 2030.

"All three experts were broadly supportive of Peirce's recommendations, recognizing the impasse that exists today and the impact that is having both on the crypto community as well as the "brain-drain" of talented projects moving overseas to a friendlier regulatory climate."

The Eastern Caribbean Central Bank is to launch a digital currency for the benefit of its dispersed island economies - essential to a region that has been disproportionately affected by climate change-induced disasters, governor Timothy Antoine tells fDi.

Gemini Trust purchased about $4 million in credits to help offset the carbon emissions footprint of the Bitcoin it holds in custody. The firm made a donation in that amount to Climate Vault. The nonprofit purchased the permits, which will prevent more than 341,000 metric tons of carbon from entering the atmosphere. Gemini plans to continue to offset its carbon footprint until only renewable energy is used in securing the Bitcoin network.

The Monetary Authority of Singapore, Singapore FinTech Association, AMTD Group and AMTD Foundation announced the launch of a S$6 million MAS-SFA-AMTD FinTech Solidarity Grant to support Singapore-based FinTech firms amid the challenging business climate caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.

The U.S. White House Office of Science and Technology released a report on Thursday urging the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the Department of Energy (DOE) to take measurable actions to control high energy consumption by crypto mining proof-of-work mechanism. The report goes on to say that "should these measures prove ineffective at reducing impacts, the Administration should explore executive actions, and Congress might consider legislation, to limit or eliminate the use of high energy intensity consensus mechanisms for crypto-asset mining."

The Bank for International Settlements (BIS), the Hong Kong Monetary Authority and the United Nations Climate Change Global Innovation Hub presented the results of their Genesis 2.0 initiative. The project aims to explore the use of blockchain, smart contracts and the Internet of Things (IoT) for a global environment cause. The project resulted in two prototypes of tokenized green bonds, developed by two separate international teams, which are "de facto verified carbon credits" recognized by either international, national or other verification mechanisms.

"Asked about Coinbase's claim that traders are moving 'offshore' to exchanges like Binance that have rolled out zero-fee BTC transactions, chief operating officer Emilie Choi clarified that "companies that say zero fee are still generating a spread" and Coinbase was "not going to compete on price because of the premium nature of our offering." Exchanges based in less, er, rigorous regulatory climates also get to offer products that Coinbase can't legally provide. Armstrong said he repeatedly told policy makers that "by pushing so hard on local companies, you're not actually protecting investors. You're just encouraging them to move offshore to even less regulated options, right?""

Binance is withdrawing from the Canadian market, citing regulatory guidance. "New guidance related to stablecoins and investor limits provided to crypto exchanges makes the Canada market no longer tenable for Binance at this time. We put off this decision as long as we could to explore other reasonable avenues to protect our Canadian users, but it has become apparent that there are none... We are confident that we will someday return to the market when Canadian users once again have the freedom to access a broader suite of digital assets."

A newly formed decentralized autonomous organization (DAO) backed by the Lemonade Foundation will roll out permissionless weather insurance to African farmers later this year. The coalition is dedicated to building and distributing at-cost, instantaneous, parametric weather insurance to subsistence farmers and livestock keepers in emerging markets. The insurance program will be accepting stablecoin or local currency payments from farmers through a decentralized application on the Avalanche blockchain. An initial rollout in Africa is expected within the year, with flood insurance in Nigeria expected to be an initial offering, according to a person involved in the project.

In the Hurricane Dorian aftermath, the Central Bank of the Bahamas Project Sand Dollar demonstrated one major benefit: rapid payments system restoration after a disaster. On Abaco and to a lesser extent Grand Bahama, local banking services closed as the branches and ATMs were destroyed or rendered nonfunctional. Restoring these physical assets required weeks to months, and in some cases are not yet in place. Mobile phone coverage, by contrast, was generally restored with a few days after Dorian. Sand Dollar's mobile phone functionality will mean that the financial recovery aspects of a hurricane can progress more quickly and more safely than would otherwise be the case.