No more business as usual. These 30 entrepreneurs are already building the low-carbon post-recession economy
Deforestation is responsible for 20% of the world’s carbon emissions, roughly the same amount as the United States or China, the world’s largest polluters. Yet all three sources – approximately two-thirds of global emissions – are missed by the current Kyoto Protocol. For every hectare of forest burned, 400 tonnes of CO2 is released into the atmosphere – and sometimes up to ten times more due to the exposure of underground peat reserves.
This situation forced Philipson to completely rethink his career and act. An ex-investment banker, he realised that the financial pressures on the emerging markets where most rainforests are situated are such that it is usually more profitable to cut them down than leave them standing. Unless this changes, deforestation will continue unchecked.
Philipson’s goal is to counter the pressures of globalisation that are driving deforestation by developing a new capital market to value standing forests. Specifically, this will include the launch of an Ecosystem Service Certificate attached to an €80m, 10-year tradable bond, the interest from which will pay for the protection and maintenance of 350,000 hectares of the Guyana rainforest. The deal will be launched this year and is being conducted through a partnership with the Iwokrama International Centre for Rainforest Conservation & Development in Guyana.
But Philipson is not stopping with Guyana. He wants to design a comprehensive, global trading model for rainforest protection. Ultimately, he wants to create a Forest Index so that investors can treat forest as a legitimate asset class alongside other renewables such as wind, biomass and solar. “Fundamentally, this is about the global management of global carbon stocks, part of which must preserve biodiversity levels, indigenous cultures, and the monitoring and governance of the rainforest.”
Philipson established for-profit company Canopy Capital in December 2007. The Global Canopy Programme, a UK charity dedicated to the research and preservation of the tropical rainforest, holds a 20% stake in the company, with the remaining 80% owned by a dozen investors.
Philipson also heads up Wingate Ventures, which he established in 1990 to provide corporate finance to businesses making a positive contribution to the environment. As special advisor to The Prince’s Rainforest Project (set up by the UK’s Prince of Wales), Philipson also works with governments, businesses and NGOs to seek solutions to the destruction of tropical forests around the world.
In Philipson’s view, forests are an investment hedge against government failure to deliver emissions reduction targets by reducing society’s dependence on fossil fuels and encouraging renewables.
“The rules of the game we inherited from our forefathers are no longer fit for purpose. With global population going from 1.5 billion in 1900 to 6.7 billion today, the relationship between man and the planet is reaching crisis point. Sustainability needs to be at the heart of everything we do.”
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