Environmental Markets

By 2030, Carbon will be the largest commodity market in the world: $1.6-2.4 trillion, about the same as the current oil market.

As we enter a new era of scarcity, environmental markets are exploding. This includes not only carbon, but emerging water and biodiversity markets. We are at the forefront at developing frameworks for biodiversity markets. We are leading an interdisciplinary working group developing market-based strategies for managing seabird and sea turtle impacts from commercial fisheries (known as bycatch). The group, which includes ecologists, economists, policy makers, lawyers, and businesspersons, is developing a policy and operational framework that integrates biodiversity offsets into fisheries bycatch management, and is consistent with the Convention on Biological Diversity. The framework lays out a use-rights approach to bycatch management, and for the first time – an opportunity for fishing fleets to be bycatch neutral or positive, and do so in a cost-effective way.

Partners:
Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization, Australia; National Center of Ecological Analysis and Synthesis, USA; Nicholas Institute for Environmental Policy Solutions, USA; The Robert and Patricia Switzer Foundation, USA; Resources for the Future, USA.