SmarterMarkets™

This week, we kick off our new series, Days of Futures Past, where we will be talking with the people who built these markets and those who know them best as we explore the lessons we need to make our commodity markets ready for the future. Our first guest is professor and author Scott Irwin. Scott is the Laurence J. Norton Chair of Agricultural Marketing at the University of Illinois and the author of Back to the Futures: Crashing Dirt Bikes, Chasing Cows, and Unraveling the Mystery of the Commodity Futures Markets. SmarterMarkets™ host David Greely sits down with Scott to discuss some of the lessons of the past that we can use to build commodity futures markets that survive, flourish, and remain the beating heart of our economy.

In the final episode of our Carbon Frontiers series, we welcome David Antonioli, CEO of Verra, back into the studio. SmarterMarkets™ host David Greely sits down with Antonioli to discuss how the VCM can grow and develop into mature markets and what Verra is doing to help make that happen.

We continue our Carbon Frontiers series this week with John Dowd. John is the CEO of GoGreen Investments, a Special Purpose Acquisition Company helping private companies working on solutions to climate change raise funds on Wall Street. Before joining GoGreen, John managed multi-billion dollar portfolios at Fidelity Investments and co-led the Fidelity Energy Research Team. SmarterMarkets™ host David Greely sits down with John to discuss how to successfully and responsibly invest in the energy transition. David and John also explore GoGreen’s investment in mining the battery metals needed to decarbonize our energy system.

This week, we present a special episode of SmarterMarkets™, bringing you exclusive interviews from last month’s FT Live Commodities Global Summit in Lausanne, Switzerland. SmarterMarkets™ host David Greely attended the summit and worked with the Financial Times to record interviews from this gathering of commodity experts, practitioners, and trading houses. The Financial Times’ Natural Resources Editor, Leslie Hook, provides an introduction to this special release, with guest appearances from Goldman Sachs' Jeff Currie, RBC Capital Markets' Helima Croft, Vitol's Michael Curran, International Emissions Trading Association's Alasdair Were and Joe Raia of Abaxx Exchange. Throughout the interviews featured in this special episode, host David Greely sits down with these guests to examine the future of carbon markets and climate action, the under-appreciated risks to our commodity markets ecosystem, balancing critical mineral supply and demand, the need for clear regulatory messaging from governments, and energy security amidst a changing geopolitical landscape.

This week on our Carbon Frontiers series, we welcome Rachel Walsh into the SmarterMarkets™ studio. Rachel is Carbon Innovation Analyst within Equity Research at BMO Capital Markets. SmarterMarkets™ host David Greely sits down with Rachel to discuss how recent press coverage of voluntary carbon markets is impacting the companies that participate in them, how companies are using the voluntary carbon markets to meet netzero commitments, and the big trends that will help determine where we go from here.

We continue exploring Carbon Frontiers this week with Bruce Tozer, Former Head of Environmental Markets at JP Morgan, Carbon Advisor at Abaxx Technologies, and a Non-Executive Director on a number of agribusiness & carbon-related boards. SmarterMarkets™ host David Greely sits down with Bruce for a conversation about the future of our food systems and to discuss what’s happening on the carbon frontier at the intersection of agriculture, climate, the environment, and technology.

This week on Carbon Frontiers, we dive in with Yao Huang, Investor and Board Director at Carbon Optimum. SmarterMarkets™ host David Greely sits down with Yao to discuss her perspective on the different financing needs of carbon removal tech versus other tech startups, as well as her company’s experience deploying new technology that uses algae to transform carbon emissions into food, feed, fuel, and fertilizer.

We continue our Carbon Frontiers series this week with Leslie Biddle, Senior Advisor to the Undersecretary for Infrastructure at the US Department of Energy and former partner at Serengeti Asset Management. SmarterMarkets™ host David Greely sits down with Leslie to discuss how the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022 and the Bipartisan Infrastructure Bill of 2021 are transforming US energy policy and accelerating the energy transition to a low carbon economy.

This week on our Carbon Frontiers series, we welcome Peter Zaman back into the SmarterMarkets™ studio. Peter is a Partner at HFW in Singapore and has been practicing law in climate finance and the environmental markets since 2004. One year after Peter took us deep into Article 6, we're circling back to discuss the progress that's been made — and the work that still remains. SmarterMarkets™ host David Greely sits down with Peter to tackle the legislation and mechanisms allowing countries to voluntarily cooperate with each other to achieve emission reduction targets set out in their NDCs. With over 20 years of experience across UK, EU, and Asia, Peter's rare combination of commodities and climate finance expertise provides a uniquely holistic view of the carbon market ecosystem, crucial to support businesses in their energy transition pathways.

We continue our Carbon Frontiers series with Svenja Telle, Director of Origination at Base Carbon. SmarterMarkets™ host David Greely sits down with Svenja to discuss the vital role of carbon removal in achieving our global emissions reduction targets. Together, they cover the strengths of technology-based carbon removals, the importance of community engagement and co-benefits in project design, and the need for transparent and scalable MRV solutions to ensure the quality of carbon credits. As the market continues to evolve, it's becoming increasingly clear that market maturation relies on improved MRV capabilities and project quality to build trust, quantify results, and guarantee the quality characteristics of carbon projects and their resulting credits. Svenja and David map out the range of opportunities in climate finance and carbon investments, discussing how these investments not only facilitate our transition to netzero, but also mitigate climate and operational risk while improving organizational strength.

For our third installment of Carbon Frontiers, we welcome Nat Bullard into the SmarterMarkets™ studio. Nat is Venture Partner at Voyager Ventures and Senior Contributor at BloombergNEF. He recently collected his thoughts on decarbonization in a 140-page presentation deck, capturing the state of climate and covering how we got to now, where we are going, what’s new, and how to approach what's next. SmarterMarkets™ host David Greely sits down with Nat to talk about the long view, trends, and transience in our pursuit of netzero.

We continue our Carbon Frontiers series with Peter Fusaro, the founder of the Wall Street Green Summit, which brings together the leading practitioners in sustainability with the goal of building a more sustainable finance system for responsible investing and the changing role of business. SmarterMarkets™ host David Greely sits down with Peter to discuss where we are in our decarbonization journey in preparation for the 22nd annual Wall Street Green Summit.

We kick off our new Carbon Frontiers series with David Shukman, a distinguished journalist and the former science editor of the BBC, where he reported from the climate frontlines for over 20 years. SmarterMarkets™ host David Greely sits down with Shukman to catch up on his continuing experiences on the frontlines of climate, government policy, corporate action, and science.

We conclude our A Smarter Way series with Ben Hunt, author of Epsilon Theory & Co-Founder/CIO of Second Foundation Partners. SmarterMarkets™ host David Greely sits down with Ben to discuss how the narratives and stories we tell ourselves shape our decisions and may be one of our biggest obstacles to finding a smarter way forward.

We welcome Rob Dannenberg into the SmarterMarkets™ studio as we continue our A Smarter Way series. Rob is the former Chief of the Central Eurasia Division at the CIA. SmarterMarkets™ host David Greely sits down with Rob to discuss how understanding how our adversaries think is the first step in finding smarter ways to navigate an increasingly risky geopolitical environment.