The Wall Street Green Trading Summit 9: living la vida loca(l)
Molly Peters-Stanley on March 19, 2010 2 Comments
From the inauguration of the Kyoto Protocol to the explosion of carbon offsets to "climategate" - clearly the, ah, climate for environmental finance has undergone interminable change over the last decade.
Nevertheless, carbon professionals continue to convene for spring conference season, starting with the Wall Street Green Trading Summit (WSGTS), March 23 - 24 in New York City and then Point Carbon's Navigating the American Carbon World, April 14 - 16.
Looking to the agendas for the spring conferences, two key themes seem to be a focus on state and regional initiatives, as well as "beyond carbon" environmental markets.
Some local and regional governments, having weighed the costs and benefits of green investment, have refused to wait for federal mandates or incentives to take action. In the absence of lending for cleantech and stalled federal legislation, local, regional and state governments are innovating their own finance mechanisms.
"In 2009 innovative funding was taking place in all aspects of the sector from local government to startups to consumers," identifies Peter Fusario, founder of the WSGTS. "Though not enormous industry shifters, a few initiatives that originally began in one small county or company have caught-on big."
Are more localized climate finance structures (i.e. funding cleantech improvements through property taxes) a harbinger of continued struggle for an industry that requires approximately $3 trillion to get jump started? Or does the upswing in local finance options signal patchworked support for climate action that can be knit into a national policy framework?
Conference presenters (and Ecosystem Marketplace's event coverage) will explore this topic, as well as another addition to this year's programming that's of particular interest to the Ecosystem Marketplace team - using banking methods to protect wetlands and biodiversity.
The topic is certainly timely, considering the United States Department of Agriculture's recent introduction of its new Office of Environmental Markets (OEM). The office intends to create a market-based system that functions across existing and separately designed marketplaces for ecosystem services, including water quality, biodiversity, wetlands and carbon markets.
Ecosystem Marketplace recently staked its own claim in biodiversity banking with the launch of the first ever State of the Biodiversity Markets report. The report captures the size and trends of biodiversity markets worldwide, to lend transparency and credibility to these emerging markets.
Stay tuned as Ecosystem Marketplace reports on the WSGTS, and feel free to respond with your thoughts about these emerging developments in the environmental markets.
I think the setback on carbon markets provides a good opportunity to step back and begin to appreciate what the intentions are..beyond making trades and money. Carbon is not the only important ecological parameter and it doesn't go alone. An economical-ecological interfacing is a little more dynamic and a lot more symbiotic. Both of these should be given a few seconds of time before we launch into the next round.
It was always in my mind that the two primary purposes of a Carbon Trading Scheme of any kind should address the need of doing something the free market could not...force a change in the way that things are being done in a way that would protect our Global Environement. Business can not and will not ever be inclined to add additional expence to protect the environment at the cost of profits. The objective of CEO's throughout history has been to maximize investors return. Placing a cost on all businesses, even if it is passed on to the consumers, is the only way to effect change. These dollars need to make there way into the hands of those that can utilize the funds to reduce the negative impacts on the environment that our business activities create.
The dollars should be used to provide for inovations that can be used to improve effeiciencies and reduce the negative consequences of our Global activities. This is actually just another form of protection of individuals. What used to come in the form of safety regulations to protect workers, seat belts and air bags to protect passengers, emission regulations to protect the environment and anti-dumping laws to protect the waters and therefore welfare of all those using the water downstream are past examples of how systems have been put into place, without the demise of any companies or industries.
Now is the time to get the Carbon Credit system put into place with these things in mind and not to aid those who simply want to profit from the buying and selling of the units. Fund the change...do not feed the beast.