Speaker Profiles

Francisco Benedito is a Spanish entrepreneur and climate-tech innovator, best known as the Co-Founder and CEO of ClimateTrade, a blockchain-based marketplace that connects organisations to verified carbon-offset projects and other nature-based climate assets.

 

Prior to founding ClimateTrade, he co-founded ClimateCoin in 2017, which sought to create a regulated crypto-asset backed by carbon credits and distributed ledger technology, positioning him at the nexus of sustainability and digital finance. With a legal education (LLB) and an MBA, Benedito brings a hybrid skill-set of regulatory insight, financial acumen and technical innovation to the decarbonisation agenda.

 

Under his leadership, ClimateTrade has emphasised transparency and scalability in the voluntary carbon market (VCM). Francisco is an active voice on LinkedIn and in public forums, discussing topics such as high-quality carbon offsets, biodiversity credits and the role of blockchain in climate finance.

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His work has earned recognition: he was listed among the “Top 100 Latinos for Climate Action” as well as included in Forbes Spain’s 2022 “leaders who will change the game” list.

 

Benedito’s professional mission centres on bridging the gap between environmental impact and financial innovation. He advocates for business-driven climate solutions and maintains that meaningful decarbonisation will require new business models, digital infrastructure and accountability frameworks in addition to regulation. Through ClimateTrade, he is enabling companies and investors to access nature-based assets with real-time traceability, and thereby aligning sustainability goals with investor returns.