Brian Thomas

Brian Thomas is a writer who specializes in climate change and the capital markets. While at Swiss Re, he managed the firm's participation in the Harvard Medical School's "Climate Change Futures" project.

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Cutting Emissions While Boosting Profits

By Brian Thomas, November 19, 2008

From a business perspective, not all carbon cuts are created equal. Business leaders may care about climate issues in a general way, but they want the emissions cuts to boost profits.

The press and other media teem with suggestions. In the absence of coherent regulations, the decision becomes a complex economic one, and not many organizations have the time and the analytical oomph to sort through all the calculations.

Fortunately, the industrious numbers-crunchers at McKinsey & Co., of management consulting fame, have done the hard work. The firm examined the costs and effectiveness of many methods of cutting carbon dioxide emissions with admirable...

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Tax vs. Trade, or Attitudes in the Carbon Economy

By Brian Thomas, July 10, 2008

On his mock-"conservative news" show, Stephen Colbert once earnestly implored an environmentalist guest who warned about the impact of unrestrained carbon emissions, "Please, tell me, what can I do to cut carbon emissions ... without inconveniencing myself in any way?"

Many businesses feel that way. Their first choice would be for no system, but by now most businesses realize that some sort of regulation is inevitable. Their biggest wish is for a clear signal from regulators about what's required of their companies. Given this reality, their clear second choice among methods to cut greenhouse gases is "cap-and-trade," also known as emissions trading.

Precedent has...

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