Book Synopsis
Praise for Carbon Finance
"A timely, objective, and informative analysis of the financial opportunities and challenges presented by climate change, including a thorough description of adaptive measures and insurance products for managing risk in a carbon constrained economy."
--James R. Evans, M. Eng. P. Geo., Senior Manager, Environmental Risk Management, RBC Financial Group
"Climate change will have enormous financial implications in the years to come. How businesses and investors respond to the risks and opportunities from this issue will have an enormous rippling effect in the global economy. Sonia Labatt and Rodney White's insights and thoughtful analysis should be read by all who want to successfully navigate this global business issue."
--Andrea Moffat, Director, Corporate Programs, Ceres
"In Carbon Finance, Labatt and White present a clear and accessible description of the climate change debate and the carbon market that is developing. Climate change is becoming an important factor for many financial sector participants. The authors illustrate how challenges and opportunities will arise within the carbon market for banking, insurance, and investment activities as well as for the regulated and energy sector of the economy."
--Charles E. Kennedy, Director and Portfolio Manager, MacDougall, MacDougall & MacTier Inc.
"Climate change is the greatest environmental challenge of our generation. Its impact on the energy sector has implications for productivity and competitiveness. At the same time, environmental risk has emerged as a major challenge for corporations in the age of full disclosure. Carbon Finance explains how these disparate forces have spawned a range of financial products designed to help manage the inherent risk. It is necessary reading for corporate executives facing challenges that are unique in their business experience."
--Skip Willis, Managing Director Canadian Operations, ICF International
"In this timely publication, Labatt and White succeed in communicating the workings of carbon markets, providing simple examples and invaluable context to the new and changing mechanisms that underpin our transformation to a carbon-constrained world. Carbon Finance will be the definitive guide to this field for years to come."
--Susan McGeachie, Director, Innovest Strategic Value Advisors, Graduate Faculty Member, University of Toronto; and Jane Ambachtsheer, Principal, Mercer Investment Consulting, Graduate Faculty Member, University of Toronto
From the Back Cover
For more than a decade now, environmental concerns in general, and issues regarding climate change in particular, have quietly captured the attention of financial institutions, individual investors, and a variety of businesses. This is because certain environmental conditions pose a credible threat to the global economy--affecting the wealth of societies, the availability of resources, the price of energy, and the value of companies.
Environmental finance experts Sonia Labatt and Rodney White understand the difficulties facing companies that need to manage their greenhouse gas emissions and are well aware of the challenges that equity and debt analysts monitoring climate liabilities must overcome. That's why they've created Carbon Finance, a comprehensive guide that explores the financial implications of living in a carbon-constrained world--a world in which emissions of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases can sometimes carry a hefty price.
Opening with a brief introduction to the Kyoto Protocol and the policies that shape a carbon- constrained society, this book quickly moves on to:
- Outline the carbon finance market place, and explain the speed with which it has developed and the complexity of its growth
- Explore specific products--designed to cover environmental risks associated with climate change--for Alternative Risk Transfer
- Take a closer look at the entire energy chain and its relationship to today's value chain
- Examine the fiduciary duty of institutional investors as they assess the financial effects of climate change within the investment community
- Detail key mechanisms created through the Kyoto Protocol and the experience of the EU Emissions Trading Scheme
- And much more
Written in a straightforward and accessible style, Carbon Finance will help you understand the metrics of carbon, carbon dioxide, and equivalents. It develops some of the themes presented in the authors' previous book Environmental Finance, and features the latest information on risk transfer measures, the Kyoto Protocol, and the role that carbon finance will play in the analysis of corporate climate risks and opportunities--as well as in company valuations.
Filled with in-depth insight and expert advice, Carbon Finance provides you with the information you need--from discussions of new markets in carbon currencies to details on the interrelationship between weather and energy markets--to succeed in this dynamic field.
Review Quotes
"A clear assessment of the carbon market and financial products being developed to help address the threat of climate change." (Ethical Corporation Magazine, May 2007)
About the Author
SONIA LABATT is an associate faculty member at the Centre for Environment, University of Toronto. She has been engaged in the academic world of environmental finance through her graduate-level courses at the university, and in the financial services world as an active investor. Dr. Labatt broadens her environmental concerns, experience, and commitment through her association with World Wildlife (Canada).
RODNEY R. WHITE, Professor of Geography at the University of Toronto, was director of the university's Institute for Environmental Studies from 1994 to 1999 and 2000 to 2005. He is an Associate Fellow of the Environmental Change Institute at the University of Oxford and a Senior Fellow at Massey College, University of Toronto. White's recent books include Building the Ecological City, Planning in Cities (with Roger Zetter), and Environmental Finance (with Sonia Labatt), which was also published by Wiley.
