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December 2017

©Cleantech21 Foundation Reitergasse 11

8004 Zurich www.cleantech21.org

+41584501000

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#Hack4Climate 2017 Report

Executive Summary

#Hack4Climate accelerates innovation at the intersection of climate and distributed ledger technologies (‘DLT’, aka ‘Blockchain’), as well as related areas. Its objective is to leverage innovation, and to rapidly develop solutions for disruptive and tangible #ClimateAction. The #Hack4Climate format includes a research and development track, awareness raising on climate in the DLT community, challenge definitions with strategic partners, a hackathon event held in parallel to UNFCCC’s COP climate conferences, awareness raising on DLT in the climate community, as well as incubation and acceleration coaching for the leading teams.

#Hack4Climate was announced at SBSAT (pre-COP) in May 2017, and the main hackathon event took place for the first time in parallel to COP23 in Bonn, 12-16/11/2017. #Hack4Climate was hosted on ‘The Fiji’, a Rhine riverboat floating in close vicinity to COP23’s BULA zone, symbolizing a small island state, and thus the urgency for #ClimateAction in line with the Paris Agreement.

Leading to the Bonn event, #Hack4Climate organized pre-paratory workshops in 17 global DLT hubs, from San Francisco to Shanghai, Berlin to Johannesburg, Surinam to Moscow, and Melbourne. Over 1,300 developers were thereby engaged on the topic of climate, in five predefined challenge areas. From +500 applications received as part of an elaborate registration process, the top 100 developers were selected

and invited to Bonn. They represent highly motivated and talented individuals from 33 countries, with core skills in DLT and related technologies such as artificial intelligence (AI). Some 40 carefully selected technology and climate experts supported the hackers, together with 10 team members.

The five-day program started with presentations and discussions on key technology and finance areas, as well as a social program (including a hacker-focused guided tour of the City of Bonn). As part of a ‘hack-up’ session, starting with thematic challenge pitches, participants formed 21 teams to address specific challenges covering all thematic areas. The main development work was then performed as part of a 24h hackathon. All teams were thus able to pitch their work in front of a high-level jury. The five winning teams were invited to present their solution as part of an official side event at the Talanoa Space, inside COP23. The #Hack4Climate celebration dinner, party, and farewell brunch were held in great atmosphere and attended by many guests.

#Hack4Climate organized the world’s first hackathon linked to a climate conference, and the first at the climate/DLT/AI intersection. From build-up, to main event, and follow-up, the spirit, collaboration and project results of #Hack4Climate exceeded all expectations. #Hack4Climate is managed by the Zurich-based Cleantech21 foundation (C21), supported by the UNFCCC Secretariat, a partner of Connect4Climate/World Bank, and the Climate Ledger Initiative (CLI). The COP23 event was an ‘endorsed initiative’ under the Fiji COP23 Presidency. C21 is grateful for the support of its partners and sponsors, including some of the world’s leading companies, universities, and foundations. C21 will continue to develop the #Hack4Climate format and will hold its next main hackathon event at COP24 in Katowice/Poland.

“Our approach is simple: Climate change is

the world’s biggest challenge. Distributed

ledgers are major drivers of innovation.

#Hack4Climate brings the two together”

Nick Beglinger, Initiator

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Why hack for climate?

The world is in transition, from central to decentral structures. This relates to areas such as energy (e.g. distributed renewables/batteries), mobility (autonomous vehicles, with distributed ownership), land management (e.g. with distributed finance), as well as currencies and markets in general. As part of an ongoing trend, this affects all industries, includes different areas of innovation, and is mainly driven by information technology. It brings about new business models and also requires fundamentally new regulatory approaches – both having to work bottom-up, rather than top-down.

Blockchain/Distributed Ledger Technologies (DLT) and Artificial Intelligence (AI) are key to this transition. Technology domains of related importance are IoT (Internet of Things), machine learning, and neural networks, as well as mobile application development. The current energy intensity and throughput limitations of some application forms of DLT (such as the Bitcoin blockchain) are a serious challenge, which needs to be taken into account. However, new forms of DLT that mitigate such challenges are emerging, and it is safe to assume that these challenges will be solved.

DLT/AI shows disruptive innovation potential for a large number of application areas with direct climate relevance. This includes a variety of industry challenges (incl. finance, energy, mobility, land management, manufacturing/supply chains), as well as several specific domains and mechanisms of the Paris Agreement (Article 6, and beyond). In #Hack4Climate’s view, DLT/AI-based innovation is crucial to go ‘further, faster, together’ (COP23’s motto), and thus to raise ambition.

#Hack4Climate’s core objective is to foster technological innovation, paving the way for specific, scalable, and rapidly deployable use cases, and thus to disruptive #ClimateAction. Based on this objective, leading DLT/AI talent is globally mobilized for the fight against climate change, up-to-date knowledge on the most relevant areas of technological and regulatory innovation are shared (among experts and partners), and specific use cases (prototypes) are mutually addressed with concrete solutions in mind. This is done as part of a revolving 6+12+6 months incubation and innovation program, as well as a growing global community of developers with relevant interests and skills. The global hackathon event held as part of this program, draws attention, allows hackers and strategic partners to build new relationship networks (among themselves, with industry, and regulators/MNOs), and together prototype the most high-potential cases. It further profiles relevant application opportunities vis-à-vis regulators (e. g. by way of a presentation of the hack’s winning cases at COP), and draws awareness of both, the expected innovation potential (‘ambition’, commitments), and the corresponding regulatory needs.

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Preparatory Workshops, Climate-Awareness in the DLT/AI Communities

With #Hack4Climate, Cleantech21 (C21), together with its strategic partner, the Climate Ledger Initiative (CLI), is taking a pioneering role at the intersection of climate and DLT/AI. The relevant teams have been among the first to raise the disruptive innovation potential of these technologies for #ClimateAction – to the UNFCCC Secretariat, amongst the Parties of the Paris Agreement, as well as the general public (pre-COP22).

In workshops following the COP22 climate conference, CLI has systematically analysed specific aspects of such innovation potential, inclusive of the current levels of awareness and understanding of ‘DLT’ in the climate community, and ‘climate’ in the DLT community. The results clearly revealed that there is need for action regarding both. In order to address the former, C21 launched #Hack4Climate and links it closely to the COP climate conferences. For the latter, C21 initiated a process to identify the most relevant global DLT/AI communities and drafted a workshop program that would (i) draw key members of the DLT/AI community, (ii) raise awareness of the importance and urgency of #ClimateAction, and (iii) disseminate know-how on where DLT/AI (and related technologies) could impact concretely and most significantly. Although many developers are aware of the climate challenge in general, there is a clear lack of understanding in terms of ‘how specifically’ DLT/AI-solutions could contribute to the fight against climate change.

CLI started the development of five exemplary use cases (in cooperation with C21 and the EU’s ‘Climate-KIC’ innovation program), and #Hack4Climate prepared background materials for five core challenge areas (table). With the Impact Hub Network, workshop partners in the world’s key technology hubs were identified.

Starting in September 2017 at the MIT’s media lab, a total of 17 preparatory workshops were held on six continents. Some 1’300 developers were thereby engaged. Background on challenge areas and the exemplary use cases served as the content basis for the workshops’ program. They each attracted between 25 and 100 attendees and were generally held in half-day formats, involving expert inputs as well as ideation-type sessions. Feedback from the workshops was very positive. They laid the foundation of the now emerging #Hack4Climate community.

2017 Participants, Hackers

With the workshops, through partner networks, and via social media, participation for its first hackathon at COP23 was promoted in all regional centres. Interested hackers were asked to complete an elaborate web registration process. With the support of Rockstar, a specialist DLT/HR firm, the 100 most high-potential participants were selected out of over 500 high-quality applications received. The top 100 were invited to

Bonn, originating from 33 different countries, covering all six continents.

The average age was 29, with blue-chip backgrounds (from Tsing Hua to Stanford, MIT to ETH, the World Bank, UNFCCC Secretariat, Goldman Sachs, CDP, ConsenSys, IBM, Cisco, and many others). Far more significant than age and background was their outstanding motivation and positive cooperation

2017 CHALLENGE AREAS 1. Identification & Tracking

of Emissions

(IoT, supply chains,

NDCs/inventories)

2. Carbon Pricing

(markets & tax, linking

across-borders, p2p

exchange)

3. Distributed Energy

(developed &

developing markets,

operation & finance)

4. Sustainable Land Use

(accounting & finance,

forests & agriculture,

clean cities)

5. Sustainable Transport

(mobility & logistics,

private & public)

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spirit. Ideas, teams and friendships developed among individuals sharing common technology interests and sustainability beliefs. Many of those applicants and workshop participants who could not take part in Bonn, followed the event through social media channels. They also became part of the emerging #Hack4Climate online community.

2017 Experts & Jury Members

To appropriately represent regulatory, industry and academic actors, their know-how and points of view, #Hack4Climate invited a number of experts and a high-level jury. Expert sessions also served to update hackers on ongoing policy and research developments. Most experts spent the majority of the program with the hackers. Some joined from COP, or from elsewhere, only for a particular session or a two-day segment. The top-level jury (see listing) was made up of both, DLT and climate experts.

#Hack4Climate 2017 is grateful for the contribution of these experts (advisors, speakers, moderators):

• Marion Verles, CLI/Gold Standard (*) • Vanessa Grellet, ConsenSys (*) • Thomas Treml, Microsoft (*) • Max Thabiso Edkins, World Bank (*) • James Close, World Bank • Yin Cao, Energy Blockchain Labs • Leanne Kemp, Everledger • Edward Mendelson, Everledger • Jürg Füssler, CLI/INFRAS • Sven Braden, CLI/LIFE Climate Foundation • Lewis Freiberg, IOTA • Stefan Henningsson, WWF

• Stefan Klauser, ETH • Markus Dapp, ETH • Mark Ballandies, ETH • Klaus Schaaf, Volkswagen

• Mateo Sotomayor, Innogy • Cornelius Schneider, Innogy • David Weber, Innogy • Fabian Jonas, Innogy/Agora • Gavin Nicol, ConceptLabs

• Bas von Oostveen, ConceptLabs

• Jürgen Reinhard, Quantis

• Christopher Zimdars, Quantis

• Oonagh Fitzgerald, CIGI

• Christian Trachsel, SBB

• Ueli Kramer, SBB

• Douglas Miller, Rocky Mountain Institute

• Thore Hildebrandt, GridSingularity/EWF

• Ingo Puhl, Whapow

• Arndt Weisshuhn, XTECH

• Franz von Weizsäcker, GIZ • Will Zhang, Wasion • André Wolke, Validity Labs • Xiaochen Zhang, Fintech4Good • Alexey Shadrin, Russian Carbon Fund,

DAO IPCI

• Niels Rot, Impact Hub Network

• Massamba Thioye, UNFCCC

• Gajanana Hedge, UNFCCC

• Mario Cabreja-Schery, UNFCCC

• Santhosh Thanjavur Prakasam, UNFCCC

• Sebastian Sooth, Deutsche Bahn

• Meret Brotbek, Climate-KIC

• Harald Rauter, Climate-KIC

• Jackob Flingelli, Deutsche Telekom

(*) Press Conference Participants, 11/11/2017

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Jury Members & Leading Experts

Michael Thomas Alexandre Casey Chrometzka Gellert-Paris MIT Media Lab GIZ UNFCCC

Julie Dominik Fabian Maupin Schiener Vogelsteller Max Planck Inst. IOTA Ethereum

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2017 Organisers & Supporters

#Hack4Climate was conceived and is run as an innovation acceleration program by the Zurich-based Cleantech21 foundation (C21). #Hack4Climate 2017 in Bonn was organized and financed mainly by C21. The foundation is grateful for the financial and in-kind contributions by our corporate and foundation supporters (see board).

#Hack4Climate 2017 was a team effort and one that pioneered in format and content. The organizational team had to fight at the ‘leading/bleeding edge’, with very short time frames, and complex logistical challenges in Bonn (during busy COP23). C21 is most grateful for the dedication and positive spirit of each member of the #Hack4Climate 2017 team:

• Nick Beglinger, C21 (strategy/program, moderation)

• Loïc Schulé, Impact Hub (strategy/program, moderation)

• Kaspar Gertsch, Impact Hub (community

strategy/management, on-site support)

• Michael Bützer, C21 (sponsorship/marketing, program

management, on-site support)

• Anurag Maloo, Techstars (social media, moderation)

• Angelika Tews, GIZ (internee, community & partner

management, on-site support)

• Bojan Martin, C21 (sponsorship/marketing, IT

infrastructure manager, on-site support)

• Anna Hadorn, C21 (social media, communications &

press, on-site support)

• Justus Spengler & Klaus Fuchs, Rockstar (website,

participant selection, hackathon management)

• Roman Rittmann & Team, Hackerbay (strategy/marketing)

• Jeannette Alison, C21 (administration)

• Nadja Hauser, C21 (preparatory research, off-site support)

Bonn Program, 12-16/11/2017

Participants checked in on The Fiji during the course of Sunday 12/11. They first got to know each other as part of a welcome reception. Thomas Chrometzka of GIZ greeted participants in the name of the host country and the host city. Nick Beglinger provided a 45-minute introductory keynote on climate challenge, urgency of action and engagement opportunities – as well as how DLT/AI (and related technologies) may contribute to scale and speed of #ClimateAction (‘disruptive’). At the welcome dinner, mutual introductions continued. Following that, Loïc Schülé briefed all participants on organisational guidelines and the program of the coming days. Participants spent the rest of the evening getting to know each other better, several already engaging in project discussions.

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The morning of Monday 13/11 was devoted to technical updates and deep-dives – on Ethereum by Fabian Vogelsteller (with an emphasis on Web3.js), and on IOTA (a novel type of DLT with scale and energy advantages) by Lewis Freiberg. Gavin Nicol of ConceptLabs analysed the challenge of data veracity and provenance (with the Proofworks API), and Jürg Füssler highlighted current practices, challenges and potential DLT-based solutions for ‘ITMOS’, a specific Paris Agreement mechanism. A sustainable lunch was served outside of The Fiji, followed by an on-foot city-tour of Bonn. The tour was organized in cooperation with the local developer community, and included historic as well as modern points of interest to climate friendly hackers. Back on The Fiji, the six-hour hack-up session started. Partners and sponsors had the opportunity to pitch their use case to the 100 hackers, some of whom presented their own case. Each of the cases pitched was also discussed in plenum. Hackers, experts, partners and sponsors then engaged individually in the cases they found most interesting and relevant. Following intensive discussions, brainstorming-exercises and negotiations, hackers started to group around specific ideas and formed teams of 4-6 people until the hack-up session officially closed at 2am.

After breakfast on Tuesday 14/11, the morning session included further technology, general development strategy, and motivational inputs – provided by Vanessa Grellet of ConsenSys, Michael Casey of MIT, Arndt

Weisshuhn of xTech, as well as Anurag Maloo of Techstars. These inputs set the scene and atmosphere for the main 24-hour hackathon, which commenced at 12:00 sharp. The teams formed during the hack-up session now started specific work by outlining their business idea/use case, by programming and prototyping. The Fiji turned into a buzzing area, full of activity, typing and heated discussions, fuelled by a steady supply of coffee, sustainable energy drinks, and high quality, mostly healthy, food. The 21 teams that had formed were coached by experts throughout most of the 24-hour session. Many hackers worked straight through, some took short naps, others went for walks on the ‘palm deck’ of The Fiji, freshening up.

The 24-hour hackathon ended with the submission of each team’s work, followed by the Wednesday 15/11 lunch. After that, all teams had approx. one hour to prepare their four-minute pitch of the use case developed during the hack. The pitching session that then followed was clearly one of the highlights of #Hack4Climate. All 21 teams presented in front of a high-level jury (as well as all hackers and experts), with their use cases covering all of #Hack4Climate’s challenge areas. The jury’s questions and comments after each pitch provided valuable insights for all teams and many experts – lessons on technology and business models, inputs on feasibility and potential impact. Once all pitches were made, the Jury retreated for an hour of deliberation and internal discussion – while the hackers had some time to relax. The jury returned and announced the five winning teams, as well as the one overall winner (see box). Throughout the event, energy levels were high and teams competitive – while at the same time the atmosphere remained very positive and cooperative. Following the winners’ announcement, it was time for the celebration dinner. The core #Hack4Climate community was joined by invited guests from the COP and the local science and hacker scene. With close to 200 attendees, The Fiji’s dining hall was bursting full, and the spirit and atmosphere excellent. This was also due to the frank yet positive remarks by both dinner speakers – James Close of the World Bank and Stefan Henningsson of WWF, as well as a few words by the happy winning team. Following the dinner was the #Hack4Climate 2017 party – which rocked until the wee hours, bonding the community.

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Thursday 16/11 already marked the last day of #Hack4Climate. Following a much-deserved sleep, the day started with a relaxed brunch – in the first part focused only on coffee and food. The second part included insightful keynote addresses by Lianne Kemp of Everledger (on her experience/ lessons-learnt as a successful DLT entrepreneur), and Julie Maupin of the Max Plank Institute (also representing CIGI, and covering important DLT governance issues). The session concluded with a lively panel discussion moderated by Fabian Vogelsteller of Ethereum – and providing an outlook for the hackers

on potential next steps in moving their cases forward. In between, all participants, in their new #Hack4Climate T-shirts, gathered on deck for the final ‘media’ pictures – while The Fiji tucked-up the Rhine and ‘posed’ right in front of COP and the UN tower. All winning teams then received an accreditation and were given the opportunity to pitch their idea in the Talanoa Zone inside COP23. This allowed #Hack4Climate to demonstrate the disruptive innovation potential of DLT/AI right in front of COP regulators, at the centre of #ClimateAction. It already led to valuable contacts between developers and the climate community, and it provided a grand finish of the #Hack4Climate 2017 event.

THE FIVE WINNING CASES

• Gain Forest (the overall winner) allows individuals in endangered regions to stake funds on the well-being of their forest. By way of a neural network, regions at highest future risk of deforestation are identified. A combination of satellite image comparisons and smart contracts ensures efficient and transparent transfer of funds from donors to responsible stakeholders (website).

• Balcony Climate enables individuals to capture data on air pollution and store it on the blockchain. All user data is then visualized and made accessible to the public on interactive air pollution maps.

• Autonomy is an end-to-end mobility platform, combining all means of public and private transportation. DLT as a backbone brings trust, and enables automatized payments between stakeholders. The data generated and shared, allows for a more efficient functioning of a city’s transport infrastructure.

• Plant Life incentivizes sustainable behaviour of individuals. Through gamification, citizens are incentivized to plant trees and monetize captured CO2 emissions. DLT serves as an automated payment system and is used to store and manage tree assets.

• Evoke is a decentralized crowdfunding platform that visualizes climate change. It enables citizens affected, to share and store their personal #ClimateAction, and to source funds for further activities.

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Appendix: Selected Videos, Pictures & Media

#Hack4Climate #Hack4Climate #Hack4Climate Aftermovie Press Conference Trailer

Please find a selection of our best pictures here: These are our social media channels:

This is a selection of the #Hack4Climate media coverage:

• Swiss Radio SRF (as of minute 04:30, in German): Wie Computer-Fans das Klima retten wollen

• German Development Institute (in English): Hacking for the climate

• A better blockchain: Bitcoin for nothing and transactions for free?

• IOTA to Co-Sponsor U.N. Climate Change Blockchain Hackathon

• #Hack4Climate - Why Climate needs Blockchain

• IOTA gets ready to hack for climate change this fall

• Hackathon explores ways blockchain can tackle climate change

• ‘Let’s Go to Hack4Climate’: Leveraging Blockchain to Fight Climate Change

• Hack4Climate- Blockchain Meets Environment

• David Dao and his team won first prize at #Hack4Climate – sponsored by UNFCCC

• Context Labs Partners With #Hack4Climate to Provide Core Blockchain-Enabled Data Veracity and Provenance Platform

• Blockchain is Making Inroads into the Environment Sustainability Industry

• Hacking Climate Change: Implementing the Paris Agreement with Blockchain Technology

• Water Friendliness Index @ Hack4Climate

• Coding & Policy making for Climate. A delightful Combination

• Hack4Climate. Thriller in four parts

• Hack4Climate – Saving Climate while Sailing on the Rhine

• A Bitcoin Miner and an Environmentalist Walk Into a Bar

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Moving Forward - Innovation Ecosystem for #ClimateAction

The run-up and hackathon event in Bonn have been a big success. Feedback received from partners, experts and participants has been very positive indeed. We wish to thank everyone for their input and support! The organizing team is particularly grateful for the outstanding support received by the UNFCCC secretariat under the leadership of Alexandre Gellert-Paris, and the World Bank’s Connect4Climate initiative under the leadership of Max Thabiso Edkins. We would also like to voice a big ‘Thank you’ to the crew hosting us on The Fiji (aka ‘Scenic Crystal’), the kitchen team, who excelled in every respect (including their ‘We love Earth’ cookies), as well as the boat’s operator K-D.com, under the leadership of Andreas Albani.

Moving forward, #Hack4Climate is uniquely positioned as an innovation ecosystem at the intersection of DLT/AI and climate. It’s developer community offers an attractive resource for rapid testing and deployment. Its extensive knowledge network in climate and industry assures high-level and up-to-date sector inputs. Team and partners have track in providing coaching and related support services. The combination of a cutting-edger developer network, UNFCCC and World Bank partnerships, as well as strong academic and industry links, shows strong potential to tangibly accelerate #ClimateAction.

With almost a year to the next main hack event at COP24 in Katowice/Poland, the #Hack4Climate format can now be run in full cycle, including challenge preparation, pre-hackathons, and post-hack acceleration. Key elements of the format have been confirmed – concept/duration, 100 hackers, 20 pitches, 5/1 winners. New elements will be added – online-tie-ins, longer hack period, more challenge guidance. Altogether the format will be further developed, including an ambassador-network and community management tools.

Nick, Michael, Kaspar, Angelika, and Loïc will stay on board and support the leading teams coming out of #Hack4Climate 2017. This team will continue to build-up the developer community. Our success depends on partnerships being extended, and new ones identified.

We would like to conclude this report by saluting all of ‘our’ hackers, thanking them for their great contributions, and their patience at times ;). We feel privileged to work with you and are certain that together we can make a difference!

“It was an honour and a privilege

to be involved”

- Julie Maupin, Max Planck Institute -

“It’s really refreshing to see solutions that we

have not even thought of yet – that’s very

valuable to a business like ours”

- Edward Mendelson, Everledger -

“I was at awe by the attention the hackathon brought towards using blockchain to fight climate change”

- Sebastian, Participant from Mexico -

“My COP highlight”

- James Close, World Bank -

“I just wanted to congratulate everyone

and say thanks for the awesome event.

Even though I could not go, I was following

the event. I realized it was awesome. So

thanks a lot for even considering me.”

- Rabimba, Applicant from India -

“A truly inspiring event”

- Michael Casey, MIT-