Chicago Climate Exchange (Ccx): The Origin and Evolution of Voluntary Efforts to Establish Carbon Markets

By Richard L. Sandor and Paula Diperna

The Chicago Climate Exchange (CCX), which operated from its launch in 2003 to its sale to the Intercontinental Exchange (ICE) in 2010, was the world’s first and still only cap-and-trade system covering all six major greenhouse gases (GHGs) Membership in CCX was voluntary, but all emissions reduction commitments, auditing and trading rules were mandatory via a legally binding civil contract, a first in history. 

How I Saw It

By Richard Sandor

From 1999 to 2005, Richard L Sandor wrote a monthly column for Environmental Finance magazine. The column was called “How I See It”. Sandor has compiled all of his articles into one comprehensive historical analysis and commentary on the field of Environmental Finance. How I Saw It offers a historical account of the development of the Chicago Climate Exchange (CCX) from the “father of carbon trading” himself, and also the developments in environmental markets over the years since the Kyoto Protocol in 1997.

Sustainable Investing and Environmental Markets: Opportunities in a New Asset Class 

by Richard Sandor, Murali Kanakasabai, Rafael Marques, Nathan C (2014)

Environmental asset classes are not a hope for tomorrow but a reality today. This new asset category promises to grow dramatically in the 21st Century as financial analysts, investors, and corporations around the world try to find ways to profit or reduce costs while promoting environmental social benefits. Sustainable Investing and Environmental Markets: Opportunities in a New Asset Class presents a groundbreaking new way to “do well and to do good.”

Environmental Markets: A New Asset Class

by Richard L. Sandor (Author), Nathan J. Clark (Author), Murali Kanakasabai (Author), Rafael L. Marques (Author)

Population growth, industrialization, and urbanization in the past 200 years have resulted in local, national, and global pollution of our environment. Markets, when designed properly, can be a powerful agent to combat this pollution. Environmental finance is the art and science of using economic incentives, financial tools, and market mechanisms to achieve desired environmental outcomes.

Good Derivatives: A Story of Financial and Environmental Innovation

By Richard Sandor, foreword by Ronald Coase

Through the eyes of an inventor of new markets, Good Derivatives: A Story of Financial and Environmental Innovation tells the story of how financial innovation has been a positive force in the last four decades. If properly designed and regulated, these “good derivatives” can open vast possibilities to address a variety of global problems. Filled with provocative ideas, fascinating stories, and valuable lessons, it provides both an insightful interpretation of the last forty years in capital and environmental markets and a vision of world finance for the next forty years.

Electronic Trading and Blockchain: Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow

By Richard Sandor

Trading floors in the 60s and 70s involved hundreds of people shouting bids. In fact, the decibel levels were so high that traders who traded every day had hearing problems later in life. In 1980, the first widely used electronic trading exchange was established. On September 1, 1969, the California Commodity Advisory Research Project (CCARP) was formed and housed at UC Berkeley. The project’s first aim was to examine the feasibility of an electronic, for-profit exchange. At the time, there were only 12 exchanges worldwide, and none were for-profit — or electronic. Read first-hand from Richard Sandor, the project director and how CCARP was 20 years too early for the financial world.