In this episode, host Allan Marks speaks with Alexia Kelley, managing director of the Carbon Policy & Markets Initiative at High Tide Foundation, and Josh Sterling, a partner in Milbank’s Litigation & Arbitration and Derivatives Groups based in Washington, DC and former federal regulator of commodity futures markets. They discuss carbon credits in voluntary markets and in mandatory or compliance markets. They also explore how new rules in the US and globally aim to boost the integrity of voluntary carbon markets, how to get more “bang for the buck” in carbon trading, and how nature-based projects and other decarbonization investments funded by carbon credits—such as reforestation, agriculture sector improvements, and renewable energy projects—help support climate goals.

About the Speakers

Alexia Kelly has nearly 20 years of experience dealing with high integrity carbon and environmental services markets. She is managing director of the Carbon Policy & Markets Initiative at High Tide Foundation and was previously director of NetZero and Nature at Netflix, on the board of ICVCM setting global standards for voluntary carbon markets, and the US State Department’s lead negotiator on Article 6 of the Paris Agreement to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change.

Josh Sterling is a Milbank partner based in Washington, DC and a member of the firm’s Litigation & Arbitration and Derivatives Groups. In DC, he served for many years as Director of the CFTC’s Market Participants Division overseeing over 3300 banks, intermediaries and registered asset managers trading derivatives, among other federal regulatory duties. He specializes in representing banks, trading firms, derivatives markets, and other institutional clients in high-stakes investigations, enforcement matters and other regulatory proceedings before the CFTC.

Allan Marks is one of the world's leading project finance lawyers. He advises developers, investors, lenders, and underwriters around the world in the development and financing of complex energy and infrastructure projects, as well as related acquisitions, restructurings and capital markets transactions. Many of his transactions relate to ESG and sustainability, innovative clean technologies, and sophisticated contractual risk allocation. He is a Senior Fellow at Columbia University’s Center on Sustainable Investment and serves as an Adjunct Lecturer at the University of California, Berkeley at the Law School and previously at the Haas School of Business.

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How to Improve Carbon Credit Markets: “Trust but Verify”