Description

Future climate change is one of the defining challenges of the 21st century. The fundamental political challenge is to find an economically acceptable means of reducing the emissions of greenhouse gases. Many politicians and economists have advocated either regional or a global carbon-trading scheme. The EU Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS) is an example of a highly successful approach covering more than 11,000 installations in 31 countries. Currently China is development a similar internal trading mechanism to reduce their greenhouse gas emission. The second important development in global carbon trading is the UN Programme on Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation (or UN-REDD Programme). This programme is envisioned as a win-win solution that can protect forests and ecosystems, promote reforestation and provide forest dwellers an income. The key problem is how to find an economic way to measure, report and verify (MRV) carbon stored in protected forest or carbon gained in reforested areas. Currently a combination of satellite data with ground truthing seems the most cost effective approach. Prof. Maslin will examine the emergence of these different carbon markets, assess the size and opportunities of each. He will also demonstrate new technology that has been developed to track global financial transactions to understand who is investing in these new markets. This will be a part of our Brown Bag Lecture Series. A light lunch will be provided.