Power On! GIX Climate Week Event Recap

As part of Climate Week, GIX hosted an event demonstrating how we can "power on” capital markets as a tool to grow and scale the market for carbon credits.

The day began with a panel of sustainability experts discussing what the carbon markets do well, and how applying the rigor of a regulated financial market could improve the investor experience. The panel was followed by a market simulation showing the benefits of trading carbon credits as an equity instrument. (To learn more about GIX’s proposed equity solution, click here)

GIX Chief Green Officer Shelley Goldberg moderated the discussion about the present and future state of carbon markets. Panelists Maria Mahl, Mika Morse, and Andrea Schmitz discussed several key themes such as:

• Differences between voluntary and compliance carbon markets
• Challenges facing participants trying to produce/sell/use carbon credits
• The trust, integrity, and transparency a regulated marketplace can bring to the world of carbon credits
• The massive opportunity awaiting companies and investors once a regulated carbon market is established in the US

Zicklin School of Business Dean Bruce Weber and Professor Robert Schwartz, and University of Delaware Professor Andy Novocin, then led the participants through a trading simulation, leveraging their proprietary TraderEX software, to illustrate the pitfalls of today's manually operated carbon markets exchange, as well as the power of standardization, commodification, and regulation to improve the market experience for both buyers and sellers.

Our thanks to Baruch College for supporting the trading simulation. Power on!