Written by Richard L. Sandor, Ph.D and Paula DiPerna
Breaking the mold is the essence of innovation, as NIBA readers know well, and innovation is a journey that can lead just about anywhere.
So we learned when we teamed up to launch the world’s first cap-and-trade system and transparent public exchange to address climate change, the Chicago Climate Exchange (CCX), and this is the story we tell in our new book, CARBON HUNTERS: Reflections and Forecasts on Climate Markets in the 21st Century (World Scientific Press). First individually and then as a team, our CCX journey led from Berkeley to Brazil, Chicago, and The Hague and Washington, D.C. from Beijing to Shanghai to Hong Kong, New Delhi to Bombay, and just about other every corner of the world.
But CARBON HUNTERS embodies not only journeys across geographies of the world but also of the mindset, highlighting how fate and luck play key roles, as do patience and dedication and a willingness to test the limits.
CARBON HUNTERS details the evolution of Sandor, from his days in Brooklyn as a young man fascinated by microbes and chess games, through his research ebb and flow in academic economics and product theory, to his real-life plunge into electronic trading and commodities markets, to his eventual breakthrough with the invention of financial futures and his pioneering work in environmental markets. In parallel, the book details DiPerna’s professional arc, from combing the globe as a producer and writer with oceans explorer Jacques-Yves Cousteau and the vessel “Calypso,” to running a major US philanthropy, to eventually meeting Sandor and kicking off CCX. Pooling our experiences, we brought together an unprecedented coalition of early adopters and forward thinkers to join and help build CCX and, we can now see, truly change the world.
Ultimately, though, the book picks up the thread of the past to look ahead to the important and exciting prospects of the voluntary carbon market (VCM) and help integrate and bring coherence to the patchwork of emerging mandatory carbon markets. As linkage of these markets evolves, exchanges and brokers will be paramount to the ability of carbon pricing to generate both lasting environmental benefit and financial return. Again, breaking the mold, the book defies pessimism, highlighting promising breakthroughs and plans in India, China and all sorts of joint ventures and investment vehicles in clean energy, and the protection of agricultural land and forests.
CARBON HUNTERS is, in the end, the narrative of how hundreds of people around the world joined a dream, becoming carbon hunters too, a dream that lives on today. NIBA members can also join, searching out the trading opportunities to be found in carbon and REC markets and on such planforms as ICE and Incubex. The moment for CARBON HUNTERS has never been more exciting, promising or important.
CCX’s success was the result of its management team. An enduring shout out to Mike Macgregor, Dan Scarbrough, Mike Walsh, Rafael Marques, Nathan Clark, Murali Kanakasabai, Steve McComb, Mike Stern, Frank Kenck and Ann Cresce. Many of them continue their carbon hunting at Incubex. Major and notable thanks to Neil Eckert. ICE, the largest carbon market in the world, always gets our special appreciation.
Pictured Authors: Richard L. Sandor, Ph.D and Paula DiPerna
