Yale Center for Business and the Environment

Katherine will speak about voluntary carbon markets, both what they are and how they work with her recent research on market trends, quantifying prices and volumes transacted in the marketplace, and evolving standards.

Paul Hunt, Environmental Manager for the Portland Water District, Thom Kyker-Snowman, Environmental Analyst for the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, and Fred Gliesing, Senior Forester for the City of New York, discuss the management and protection of urban water supply systems.

Paul Barten, Associate Professor of Forest Resources at the University of Massachusetts, and co-author of Land Use Effects on Streamflow and Water Quality in the Northeastern United States, discusses the complex world of planning for watersheds and proposes a framework for answering the needs of the environment and the community.

Kate Hamilton, Carbon Project Manager at Ecosystem Marketplace, and Edwin Aalders, Director of the International Emissions Trading Association, discuss the development of forest carbon credit standards and their role in emerging compliance markets. The speakers detail the specific methods by which forest carbon credits are demonstrated and measured.

Nick Robins, director of HSBC’s Climate Change Centre of Excellence, and Cary Krosinsky, Vice President of Trucost, present the case for long-term, sustainable, socially responsible investing (SRI). They discuss the metrics SRI funds use to make investment decisions and how a marketplace changed by recession and stimulus will influence those decisions in the future.

Deborah Spalding, Managing Partner with Working Lands Investment Partners, LLC, providing an introduction to land investing and carbon markets from an investor’s perspective. Ms. Spalding discuss traditional and emerging markets for carbon and notes the differences between voluntary and compliance-based schemes. Finally, she notes the challenges faced by land investors and credits buyers, and ties these concepts together through a sample investment project.

Laurie Wayburn, President of Pacific Forest Trust, describes the legal system that currently governs U.S. forests and proposes a regulatory method for managing public and private forests towards a "no net loss" policy. Ms. Wayburn addresses the relationship between federal and state actions as well as the difficulties in collecting and interpreting data on forest carbon. She also notes the limits of a project-oriented voluntary system as opposed to a sector-wide approach.

Frank Merry, Fellow at the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation, traces the history of deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon and addresses the need to make the industry more sustainable and just through new technologies and regulations. Mr. Merry describes new methods to promote proper forest management and deter illegal logging.

Phil Cottle, managing director of ForestRe, discusses the emerging market for insurance in forestry investing and the risks encountered by forest owners and managers. He explains the need for a "complete presentation of risk" in financial decision making about forest and carbon investments, with an emphasis on how insurers can monitor the situation on the ground.

Mark Tercek, President of the Nature Conservancy, discusses the future of forest carbon trading and strategies for engaging the private market in carbon finance. Forests are an important mechanism for sequestering carbon and protecting the environment, yet reforestation and aforestation projects have been left of some credit markets. Mr. Tercek discusses both the players in these new markets and their tools.

Kate Hamilton, Carbon Project Manager at Ecosystem Marketplace, and Edwin Aalders, Director of the International Emissions Trading Association, discuss the development of forest carbon credit standards and their role in emerging compliance markets. The speakers detail the specific methods by which forest carbon credits are demonstrated and measured.

Mark Ashton, Morris K. Jessup Professor of Silviculture and Forest Ecology and Director of the School Forests, Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies, provides a historical overview of forest management and land use. Professor Ashton discusses the changing uses of forests and how cycles of industrialization, degradation, rehabilitation and sustainability are affected by changing capitalization values. He also traces the beginnings of scientific forestry in Europe and America, and notes the strategies that forest managers and policymakers may use in the future.

Alec Giffen, Director of the Maine Forest Service, Ellen Hawes, Policy Analyst – Forestry for Environment Northeast, and Jasmine Hyman, Marketing Director of the Gold Standard, discuss the issues and opportunities created by the opening of RGGI. The speakers specifically address the growing role of forest carbon credits, and the differences between RGGI and other carbon trading schemes.

Shawn Burns, President and CEO of Carbon Credit Corp. and Ted Venners, Chairman of the Board of C-Lock Technology and Founder of Evergreen Energy Inc., discuss C-Lock’s capacity to quantify, measure, record and model soil organic matter on farms. These services allow farmers to extract quality carbon offsets earned through changing agricultural practices.

Justin Felt and Elizabeth Zelljadt, analysts at PointCarbon, discuss current and future developments in carbon markets, with a focus on upcoming regional and national schemes in the United States. The speakers also answer questions on the future of the Kyoto Protocol as well as developing standards for carbon measurement and crediting.

Abyd will be speaking about how firms identify, evaluate and maximize the financial and strategic opportunities within greenhouse gas emission trading regimes.

Martin Whittaker, Director of Environmental Finance Strategies with Mission Point Capital, Andy Ertel, CEO of Evolution Markets, Benjamin Block, Senior Analyst for Ardsley Partners Renewable Energy Strategy, Paul Ezekiel, Global Head of Carbon Trading for Credit Suisse, and Brad Gentry (Moderator), Director of the Center for Business and the Environment at Yale, discuss the pros of investing in climate change and how their respective companies invest in ways to make the environment better.

Professors Goetzmann and Rouwenhorst give a classic presentation on the 4,000 year history of financial innovation as the first part of the carbon finance speaker series.

Ted Smith, Executive Director of the Henry P. Kendall Foundation, speaks about the Henry P. Kendall Foundation and philanthropy as a funding solution to climate change.

Lise Dondy, President of the Connecticut Clean Energy Fund, and Howard Berke, Executive Chairman and Founder of Konarka, explore the burgeoning cleantech sector and dynamic roles of venture capitalists and entrepreneurs.

This presentation by Mark Fulton, Managing Director and Climate Change Strategist for Deutsche Bank, explores climate change investments in mitigation and adaptation strategies for a universal bank.

Lise Dondy, President of the Connecticut Clean Energy Fund, and Howard Berke, Executive Chairman and Founder of Konarka, explore the burgeoning cleantech sector and dynamic roles of venture capitalists and entrepreneurs.

This presentation by Mario Lopez-Alcala and Hiroshi Minami, Senior Analysts with Innovest, explores the valuation of publicly-traded companies as it pertains to the risks and opportunities posed by climate change.

This is the connecticut STate Insurance Department Commissioner, Thomas R. Sullivan, speaking about the State of Connecticut, insurance, and climate change.

Ralph Mucerino, President of AIG Global Marine and Energy speaks on insuring the future in a changing world. This netcast is brought to you by the Center for Business and the Environment at Yale and the Yale Office of Sustainability through the generous support of the Emily Hall Tremaine Foundation.

Andrew Aulisi, Director of the Markets and Enterprise Program for the World Resources Institute speaks on the changing role of the forest products sector with pending carbon legislation and new clean technologies for biofuels. This carbon finance speaker series is brought to you by the Center for Business and the Environment at Yale and the Global Institute of Sustainable Forestry through the generous support of the Emily Hall Tremaine Foundation.

A presentation by Jon A. Anda; President, Environmental Markets Network, Environmental Defense on Environmental Market Solutions for Global Warming. Discussion on Environmental Markets Network efforts to promote climate change legislation among policymakers and financial institutions and how such measures will stimulate valuable investment opportunities.

Theodore Roosevelt IV speaks about the opportunities to advance Climate Change and Conservation solutions through financial markets and mechanisms for greenhouse gas emissions.