The Fintech Road to Carbon Neutrality

[Music] hello and uh good afternoon everyone and Welcome to our sessions for fintech to road to carbon neutrality it's very nice to have you here uh it's pleasure to be here and the sustainability day at ADW this year today we explore how fintech drives the transition uh to the low carbon emission economy I Delight I'm delighted to introduce you to Mustafa Bosa uh co-founder and CEO of carbon surer that leads a utilizing AI to assess businesses and in tracking and reducing the CO2 emissions Mustafa can you tell us a little bit more about your company the carbon Surfer sure thank you hi hi everyone and hi Yana great to be here with you uh so carbon suur is a UAE founded climate and fintech and we are a h 71 uh company uh here in adgm um and we help uh businesses easily measure reduce and remove their carbon footprint with a VI to getting access to transition Finance that's in an nutshell what we do okay fantastic uh uh let's uh dive into our session so you mentioned the technology of course and uh that you guys I know that you guys are using using AI for emission tracking and how does your technology provide businesses with actionable insights for reducing the carbon footprint so finance and climate um is all actually built on data right so you you need to process huge amount of data uh to be able to uh understand what your footprint is uh to be able to get insights out of it and then um get some reduction opportunities and finance them right so all these uh depend on a huge amount of data we built a multi-agent uh AI platform uh working on open- Source AI what we do with it is we read clean and map data transaction data of banks or procurement data of large corporates uh so that uh we are able to provide um uh financing for especially mid Corps and smmes in their value chain as an example and we are very proud of this as a UAE based uh uh fintech and climate Tech uh we are the first among the first set of um companies that has been listed on uh llama uh website they under impact there's only one uh we work with Dubai holding and process 2.5 million data points across their uh supply chain this is only for two months and one business line like Dubai holding has 11 11 entities and there we are identifying who are the top contributors uh among their suppliers what are the key items and are there you know like opportunities for them to uh reduce so that's a uh like a tangible example of what we did which won an award for a UA based company that's really great uh can you share with us a little bit more and dive a little bit deeper in your examples of uh successful Partnerships and how you help the businesses to reduce their carbon emissions and what are the measurable imp impact I mean you mentioned just a few I just want a little bit more expens because this is just one of your clients you you have a broad spectrum of clients if uh I think the uh our audience would like to hear more in details on that one sure yeah so basically um we're currently working with a number of large corporates and and Banks uh here here in the UAE um and one of the major Partnerships we have is with first Abu Dhabi bank so what we do with first Abu Dhabi bank is um we are providing our climate action platform to their corporate banking uh clients uh they use our platform to as I said measure reduce and remove their carbon footprint uh one of those is a is is one of the large uh kitchen operators um in the in the country and we established their footprint um and one of the major contributors are 50 60% of it is beef that is imported from Brazil um and and um there's not there's not an easy alternative um to uh to to to reduce the carbon footprint of of beef but you know we found a you know some climate Tech from from Silicon Valley who are able to work with Brazilian Farmers to do some um you know very Innovative techniques at the uh Source at the farm so we're currently right now working with faap with that climate Tech with our kitchen operator client here and everyone in the supply chain to finance uh car bringing importing carbon nutral beef into uh into UAE so that you know we can continue enjoying our uh meals and but uh you know reduce the impact on the on the planet very interesting um that you brought this up are you working with the scope two and threes as well um yes so so basically yeah we do scope one and two uh a lot of firms out there who are able to do that but where we are you know focusing and making a difference is on the scope 3 across the uh the supply chain and the and the value chain so all that data that I mentioned about Dubai holding is is part of their uh purchase goods and services part of their scope three emissions uh let's talk about the key challenges in expanding the carbon Market I mean you have on one side you have uh golden standards and Vera and on the other side you have freef fall and Latin America sometimes uh they deliver their own um uh Identity or classifications to I don't know items of inventory in the carbon Market spaces and how does the carbon Surfer addresses to drive adoption among the other Industries yeah so I mean when we're talking about a market there's always uh two sides there's the supply side and there's the demand side um and over the past couple of years a lot of people have been focusing on the uh on the supply side and yes there is still a lot to be done there uh um but the last you know like 18 to 24 months we also have a demand side issue as well right and uh and how do we bring the uh the players into the carbon markets and uh expand the uh usage of carbon credits to be able to um uh offset and remove uh residual uh residual emissions is a is a big Challenge and here what we do is uh I all talked about our B2B products so one one element of our platform is providing access to finance the other one is helping our ciments especially if they are a b2c clim uh b2c company create sustainable uh products so one of those is uh eco-friendly rights at kareim uh here in the UAE uh so if you know if you're using Kim if you open uh you will see that when you you know um book a ride um from A to B from here let's say back to your home or hotel um if you select the eco-friendly we take the car type and the distance and allocate a fractional carbon credit uh after calculating the carbon footprint of that right um to to basically um remove the carbon FR uh footprint of your of your right so um you know the other day in a PO podcast I I said this as well um when we first started carbon suffer I'm very proud of actually this they they told us oh Arabs don't care about climate why are you guys leaving your you know like good corporate jobs to you know like come and uh uh do a climate Tech um just do something else we said no we believe in this and we had data of course that that that would prove us but actually right now around 10% of rides on kareim actually is eco-friendly so and this is actually you know in in terms of like the demand for um uh products sustainable products this is with very little marketing you see this around the world it's 10 to 15% and we are very proud that we proved it here in the UAE in the Middle East that the consumers do care for uh sustainable products and do care for doing something when it is made easy available and uh and and trusted wow that's uh fantastic and we will take kareim for those 10 15 uh percent rides are they identified as a green rides it's identified as eco-friendly right ecofriendly okay fantastic so we would know um let's uh let me ask you about Innovation and solutions uh innovative solutions that you have what barriers do you think the fintech still uh faces in becoming the leading force in carbon neutrality and how you in your company overcoming that yeah look I mean there's um there's a set of you know like challenges that every industry every um you know uh let's say the um company faces right um when it comes to um you know like our job what we're doing and in the intersection of climate and finance I think the biggest barrier in terms of a you know to be doing the right thing is a mindset shift that we need in the ecosystem right so um when you start a discussion around climate and sustainability everybody talks about uh you know oh we don't have policies we don't have regulations so we cannot do much about it and I know in this uh event and and in the panel we have a lot of um you know financiers I was you know for a very short period of time I was at lemon brothers so when was the last time you know like bankers and financiers really cared about regulations right so if you know like we want to innovate um we don't need regulations our Innovation doesn't need regulations yes it can make it easier faster you know like all that but but I think what I see as the biggest barrier in terms of bringing climate and finance together is that uh you know mindset mindset shift that that is needed to say that hey look you know there is there are issues out there we need to put our hats together and get the uh necessary uh tools and uh and financing uh to help the the planet I think uh people are worried about another financial crisis but you know being too prudent uh I'm I'm afraid they're just like accelerating the climate crisis yeah those are very valuable points on the uh climate investment challenges as well so I was just another stage where we're talking about uh uh investments in Renewables and digital infrastructure which you're providing uh so let's talk a little bit about the vision for the future and uh what do you think that you guys um see how the fintech May or can or is transforming uh sustainability efforts in the next five years and you're welcome to elaborate for example in your like a be a fores cider yes so and uh see what your favorable future for instance would be yeah so in order to um reach Net Zero by 2050 we need $125 trillion of transition Finance based on the world economic Forum uh estimations so I am you know envisioning a future where fintech played a role from now until 20130 let's say the next 5 to six years that they have we have enabled as as this community e ecosystem somewhere around 10% of that uh of that financing need that would be an amazing amazing achievement it is not easy um but then if it is not if if it was easy we would have done it already so that's that I think is what what keeps me excited being able to um you know enable uh the the midc corps here and the large Corps that they work with and the banks um in the global South uh be be part of that well since you mentioned the global South um two questions comes from that uh for example why UAE what how they how the UAE in leadership in the ecosystem all together supports you and and also what other countri countes in the global South you looking to partner with and collaborate with um so I have been in the region over the last um 20 25 years since 2005 and my career shaped around Finance technology and impact um and carbon suffer is now uh helping me bring all these all these three uh together and what opened my eyes to this field specifically to this field was a work that I actually did about 2 years before cup 28 with the Abu daab leadership uh on on some of the uh major uh Banks and and companies on their Net Zero strategies um and what I realized there was just like wow we have you know really a top- down uh driven approach here to do certain things and whenever you have that things happen and we've seen a number of other things in the region when there is you know like strong uh leadership uh lead leip support uh things Cascade down to the economy uh Through The Sovereign wealth funds through the um State own entities Etc um and I left my my job like I was a managing director and partner at BCG so you know as I said like a lot of people say what what are you doing why are you why are you leaving but I believed in that vision and uh so far um you know it's it's all going as expected if not faster um so we are you know like support Ed by adgm and hub 71 here um and again in in other Emirates in the UAE as well we are uh we are supported um we expanded into Saudi Arabia we're partnering with the uh Ministry of environment water and agriculture there and now we are you know like uh hoping in the next year uh to also um expand into Egypt um so we were a UAE uh founded uh from the region uh for the global South entity and you know some of the things that we accomplished and and and and and the awards is like really um gaining Global traction or Global attention that just uh really keeps us going wow very interesting are there any plans uh going more industrial Direction and uh take care of for example there's been a new initiative uh just recently in October uh launched to M steel former Emirate steel archon uh launched the steel manufacturing facility that is um uh powered 100% by Green hydrogen by uh electrolyzers from us partnership with mazdar are there anything anything like that that you or EGA or anything because EGA also has the sustainable uh green products called celesti that uh you could work with that goes into the car manufacturing and the BMW and uh Mercedes and Tesla out of here look I mean um what we're focusing on is the value chain of these all big initiatives so we're currently working with already five six largest entities in the UAE but we're focusing on their supply chain and the value chain uh so when it comes to some of those uh industrial names I think um those those huge projects there's already you know a lot of innovation power thinking power already po in but one level below that uh say the uh the midc corpse and smmes that will supply to that uh steel factory to those power plants Etc uh is our playground we're helping those suppliers to be able to um contribute to the goals and uh and the Net Zero targets of all those projects and also some existing entities um um which are uh working on their Net Zero Journeys oh that's really good we have a little bit of time that uh we could ask U um I want to ask you a question in terms of uh what do you wish for out to our audience if they would like to be uh in the same uh sector or in the same space in sustainability for example or uh carbon reduction or carbon emission uh neutrality what would you um I don't know wish for the audience how do you get the start and where do they go from with from their wishes I mean I think first of all we need more people we need more people to uh work on these issues uh we need more brain power more you know like passionate people and I think people here who are listening to this panel are are among among them I'm I'm I'm sure um I think one of the the key things which helped us a lot um was able to uh tap into the uh the government uh initiatives or some of the uh the large corporate or or Bank initiatives and tap into those um and I think this this place UAE the Middle East is I think a great place to uh to do that uh there are a number of initiatives as you mentioned already right and and we we are seeing um and understanding what is happening there what are the issues and how you can contribute to those um I think is is where I would start if someone is is is looking to get into this field well that's fantastic to everyone here thank you very much for joining us in such engaging and critical Topic at this time please join me in thanking Mustafa Bosa for his insightful contribution in leadership in this space for many many years I'm Yana boy thank you very much enjoy the rest of the [Music] where