How do we use trading for good? How do you go from the dark side to the light side?

Neil Cohn's career  began with Glencore, now the largest commodity trading house, is a man of many questions. Each question leads to a new endeavor, now with the new nonprofit, CodeGreen, of which he is founder. Fortunately Neil asked the questions about carbon trading, leading to a life of problem-solving for climate change. Introduced to global warming at COP 3, the Kyoto Protocol Climate Change Conference, Neil began to see the impact and question how to go into fields where trading can be leveraged for good.

Neil discusses with Better Worlds Host Julian Guderley his own consciousness struggle at the time early in his career, when he asked: How do traders start to change commodities to not be about the finance but to be more empowerment, and how to flip the trading on its head, because even though the countries have resources, they were not going to become rich countries because of governance.

By the time Neil attended COP 6 in Den Hague, he had to face the reality and the hatred from those on the ground when environmentalists splattered his carbon trader team with fake blood as they left the conference. He understood the needle had to move all the way from corporations to the other side to find something that would work for change. As research is now showing that CO2 is also starting to affect human brain power, to think and to produce, Neil, who has experienced bodily harm due to the polluted environment himself, has developed the latest iteration of solutions through CodeGreen to respond to the climate crisis, now at a Code Red for humanity. CodeGreen.org is a blockchain-agnostic non-profit with a focused mission to deliver open source, interoperable, and scalable solutions to address the climate crisis and other global challenges. The team has deep interdisciplinary capabilities in computer science, carbon trading, climate policy, and financial market, using distributed ledger technology to overcome trust barriers and enable inclusive collaboration.

Neil is an innovator in blockchain and sustainable finance who was instrumental in developing early markets for carbon, renewable energy, and biodiversity. He is passionate about leveraging decentralized finance to deliver on the best intentions of blockchain – sustainable growth and inclusive prosperity.