Episode 136 COP26 SPECIAL Frédéric Hache from Green Finance Observatory: a critical analysis of carbon offsets and related market mechanisms

In this thought provoking interview, Frédéric Hache, co-founder of the Green Finance Observatory, asks some hard-hitting questions about carbon-offsets and related market solutions to climate change and the biodiversity crises-and financialisation of nature more generally. Frederic discusses the evolution of market-based solutions to climate. “It is interesting that the conversation now is about how to incentivize economically, corporations, as if governments no longer had the power to compel and regulate.” Frédéric highlights what he sees as a key trend: outsourcing dealing with climate change to developing countries by buying land, planting trees and opening a new market for global investors in the process.

Frédéric is a co-founder, and executive director, of the Green Finance Observatory an independent NGO that analyses the new market mechanisms and sustainable finance frameworks in order to determine how likely they are to meet their stated environmental, economic and social objectives. Earlier in his career, Frederic spent 12 years working in investment banking, designing and selling currency derivatives before joining NGO Finance Watch at its creation, where he managed the policy analysis team and analyzed European prudential regulation of banks and capital markets.