Leading international experts to discuss impact of financial crisis on carbon markets

Leading experts from around the world are gathering today (5 May 2009) at London School of Economics and Political Science to discuss the impact of the current global financial crisis on carbon markets, which play an important role in tackling climate change and reducing emissions of greenhouse gases.

The one-day workshop, organised jointly by the Grantham Research Institute on Climate Change and the Environment at London School of Economics and Political Science and the Grantham Institute for Climate Change at Imperial College London, brings together experts from industry and academia to consider how international carbon markets have been affected by turmoil in the financial markets and uncertainty about the prospects of an international agreement at the United Nations climate change conference in Copenhagen in December.

Dr Sam Fankhauser, Principal Research Fellow at the Grantham Research Institute on Climate Change and the Environment, said: “Carbon markets through which companies buy and sell rights to emit greenhouse gas emissions are now a cornerstone of international policies to tackle climate change. But the credit crunch and global downturn is putting off many people from investing in the markets and depressing the price of carbon. It is not clear how these problems will affect the negotiations over a successor to the Kyoto Protocol for binding international targets on cuts in emissions of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases. This workshop will allow business leaders and policy experts to discuss these problems and find possible solutions.”

Dr Julien Chevallier, Research Associate on Carbon Finance and Emissions Trading at the Grantham Institute for Climate Change, said: “This workshop will bring together academic researchers on emissions trading, industrial operators regulated by the European Union Emission Trading Scheme, practitioners in the banking and insurance industry, and policy-makers. The workshop will provide a forum for fresh perspectives on carbon markets, a post-Kyoto climate treaty, and recent developments in carbon finance.”
A keynote address on ‘The European carbon market in action: Lessons from the first trading period’ will be delivered by Christian De Perthuis, Director at Mission Climat Caisse des Dépôts and professor at the University Paris Dauphine. Other participants will include Henry Derwent, the President and Chief Executive Officer of the International Emissions Trading Association and Hans-Bernd Menzel, the Chief Executive Officer of the European Energy Exchange. The workshop is sponsored by Munich Re.

Notes for Editors

1. The Grantham Institute for Climate Change opened at Imperial College London in February 2007 thanks to a multimillion pound grant from the The Grantham Foundation for the Protection of the Environment. The multidisciplinary strategy of the Institute enables it to build upon the extensive expertise in climate change research already exiting at Imperial College in order to develop mitigating technologies and affect public and private policy.