CODE GREEN: THE HEALING REVOLUTION STARTS HERE!
I’m Inna Modja — musician, social activist and climate justice campaigner.
Throughout my career I’ve used my voice to shine a light on some of the great injustices I see in the world every single day.
My mission is a personal one: when I was just 4 years old, I was subjected to female genital mutilation inspiring me to become a lifelong campaigner for women and girls rights, where amongst other things I set up La Maison du Femme to address violence against women.
More recently in my role as a UN Ambassador, I’ve fought against the deep injustices of climate change and how it impacts the most vulnerable communities across the globe who have done the least to cause the problem.
The Great Green Wall
Growing up on the edge of the Sahara Desert in my home country of Mali — I’ve seen with my own eyes just how devastating the impacts of our changing climate can be.
Fertile land that once provided food for millions has dried up. Droughts have become longer and more persistent. Conflicts have erupted over dwindling natural resources in places like the Lake Chad Basin. And climate refugees are flocking across the Sahara desert and onwards towards Europe.
In 2018, I made a musical journey across the Sahel to learn more about an epic project that aims to address these challenges head-on. Building the resilience of millions of people across the region to the encroaching threat of the climate crisis.
Known as the Great Green Wall — this African-led vision aims to grow an 8000km green corridor across the entire width of the Continent from Senegal to Djibouti. In the process, restoring degraded land, increasing food security, creating green jobs, and building resilience for the millions living along its path. Once complete the Wall will be three times the length of the Great Barrier Reef — a new world wonder benefitting not only Africa but the whole world by sequestering more than 250 million tonnes of carbon.
My journey was captured as part of the multi-award-winning ‘The Great Green Wall’ feature documentary produced by Oscar-nominated filmmaker, Fernando Meirelles (City of God, The Two Popes), which premiered at the Venice Film Festival in 2019.
The film, which has screened at major political events across the globe, is recognized as having played a key role in pushing the initiative up the international agenda, with more than $19 billion pledged at the recent COP26 Global Climate Summit in Glasgow, including by the likes of the World Bank, Green Climate Fund and even Jeff Bezos.
Harnessing the NFT Revolution for the planet
My experience with the Great Green Wall — of which I serve as a global UN Ambassador — showed me just how powerful creativity (film, music and art) could be in helping to shift the dial on a once under the radar initiative.
But I felt this was just the tip of the iceberg. I desperately wanted to find new ways to harness the creative arts to help heal the planet and empower communities on the frontline of this global existential threat.
With my partner Marco Conti Sikic, an artist who had been deeply involved in the booming world of NFTs and decentralized technologies, we were intrigued about how this new community could harness the power of creativity for the benefit of the planet.
Both in terms of the potential to generate funds for social & climate projects. But also, crucially, to leverage the trustless system of the blockchain that NFTs operate on to channel those funds directly to local frontline entrepreneurs and organisations who often find it hard to access resources due to the current inflexibility of the aid system.
Enter Code Green
We immediately contacted our long-time collaborators and Executive Producers on the Great Green Wall — Alexander Asen, a former UN environment and communications strategist, and Don Mullan, a humanitarian and best-selling author.
Together, we founded CODE GREEN — a non-profit organization, leveraging the power of art, NFTs and decentralized technologies to help communities fighting for social & climate justice.
Inspired by the dire warning from the latest IPCC report, which Antonio Gutteres, the UN Secretary General, called ‘A Code Red for Humanity’ — and the opportunity to set in motion a movement linking new technologies and the creative arts to help counter this threat.
We founded CODE GREEN based on three core principles:
- Our support will be focused towards communities where the impacts of climate change are already happening — where people are threatened with being displaced from their homes within the next two decades.
- We will champion people-powered social & climate solutions, driven by local visionaries rather than big international organizations. Because we believe change happens best when it is delivered by local people.
- We will work to disrupt current aid financing models, by decentralizing the availability of finance to local community-based frontline organizations and social entrepreneurs, those who are deeply rooted in the communities they serve.
How we work
We will set out a full roadmap in the coming weeks, but the following provides a summary of where CODE GREEN orientates its support.
- Hosting climate-related NFT auctions: We raise funds for the most impactful climate projects on the planet by hosting dedicated NFT auctions at high-level events on the international calendar. Working with some of the most exciting blue-chip and emerging NFT artists on Earth…
- Advising NFT projects on sustainability & Philanthropy : We help NFT artists and projects, advising them on how to maximise their sustainability in the NFT space, and how best they can ‘give back’ to the planet by connecting them with verified social & climate solutions
- Democratising education & access to NFTs: We believe everyone can contribute positively by creating NFTs to help heal the planet. That’s why we launch open-calls for emerging creatives, and artists from across the globe, to showcase their talents at high profile international global events.
- NFTs for the planet: As NFTs (1/1 art & collectibles) are a growing and exciting industry, pillar of the new creative economy, we are currently developing new series of tokens collections to benefit the planet.
Thank you for your attention, and stay tuned for exciting news about our upcoming NFT climate fundraising later this month.
Be sure to follow our Twitter account and join the Code Green Discord to receive all the latest updates.
