FIRESIDE CHAT TOPIC: The state of the emissions market
DETAILS: A discussion on the growing role of environmental, social and governance initiatives, the tools available for meeting ESG targets and how firms are finding value in emission reduction efforts.
INTERVIEWER and SPEAKER: Danny Gomez, managing director of financial and emerging markets at FreightWaves, and Dan Scarbrough, founder, president and COO at IncubEx, an incubator for exchange-traded products focused on the global environmental space.
BIO: Scarbrough has been a leader in environmental and energy markets for more than a decade. As senior vice president of the pioneering Chicago Climate Futures Exchange, he built customer relationships and drove rapid growth of exchange-traded environmental products, leading the development of NOx futures and options, renewable energy certificate futures, and various carbon futures and options contracts. After Intercontinental Exchange acquired Climate Exchange in 2010, he continued to focus on the environmental markets in the U.S. and Europe as well as the international coal markets.
KEY QUOTES FROM SCARBROUGH:
On carbon mandates in transportation: “Most recently, these low-carbon fuel standard markets are really aimed at the transportation sector to promote lower carbon intensity in transportation fuels. What we’ve seen from an environmental perspective is a proliferation of these market-based approaches to various environmental issues.”
On the investor’s perception of ESG initiatives: “Ten years ago it was more about making that environmentally conscious decision whether it be for marketing purposes or based on a strong belief in sort of protecting the environment and that being a high priority for many of these companies. Now it’s more of an investment decision as well, and capital markets are really starting now to value ESG and the environmental impact of these companies.”
On carbon accounting and the need for transparency: “The carbon accounting itself should become more of a standard. You need more harmonization. You need more transparency. We’ve always been a big proponent of regulation, and when these markets become futures markets, having the commodity futures trading commission overseeing the markets … is definitely an important piece of it as well.”