Episode 8 | Carbon Currency | GT Environmental Finance
For my "climate change" episode, I knew I wanted to approach this subject matter from a business perspective, not an emotional one.
That's why I tapped Andrew Fielding, president of GT Environmental Finance, an Austin- and New Orleans-based company with experience with Carbon offsets.
Andrew began what eventually became GT in London in 2000. At the time they were gas brokers. In 2002 they returned to the U.S. and started the company as it is now. In the past 15 years, GT has structured over 1,000 deals on both sides of the Atlantic as Renewable Energy Certificates, Renewable Identification Numbers, and Carbon offsets.
One of their proudest accomplishments was a landfill gas project in St. Landry, Louisiana, because of the progressive thinking of the leaders in that area.
I asked Andrew a lot about how carbon pricing works in both the U.S.--if other states don't play along, and if there is not cooperation in the international community.
Andrew, arguing from the point-of-view of an economist, says carbon has a price, whether there is an actual one or not. To further help explain this concept, I came up with the Kenny Chesney/Taylor Swift analogy. I hope you like it.
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