Climate Finance Podcast Episode

Daniel Esty is the Hillhouse Professor at Yale University’s Environment,  Law, and Management Schools. He also serves as director of the Yale Center for Environmental Law and Policy, co-director of the Yale Initiative on Sustainable Finance, and serves on the Advisory Board of the Yale Center for Business and the Environment, which he founded in 2007.

Professor Esty is the author or editor of 14 books and 150+ articles on environmental protection, regulatory reform, energy policy, and sustainability and their connections to corporate strategy, competitiveness, trade, and economic success.

Prior to his academic career, he earned his Juris Doctor from Yale Law School and his B.A. in Economics from Harvard University. He was also a Rhodes Scholar at the University of Oxford.

Topics discussed:

• Harvard Undergrad Thesis with Dr. Richard Caves: Exploring the Relationship between Economic Power and Political Influence.

• Yale Law School: Learning about Environmental Issues and International Trade.

• International Environmental Pro-Bono Cases at Arnold & Porter that Shaped Daniel Esty’s Career Trajectory.

• Joining the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency as Special Assistant to William Reilley in 1989 to Negotiating the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change in 1992.

• Rio 1992 Earth Summit: “Success Versus Real Success.”

• Publishing his first book: Greening the GATT: Trade, Environment, and the Future (1994) with support from the Peterson Institute for International Economics and the Council on Foreign Relations.

• Early Research Publications with Michael Porter:

  • Industrial Ecology and Competitiveness: Strategic Implications for the firm (1998).

  • National Environmental Performance: An Empirical Analysis of Policy Results and  Determinants (2005).

• Establishing the Environmental Performance Index in 2002 and maintaining the EPI for over two decades.

• “Green to Gold” Book Publications (2006-11):

  • Green to Gold: How Smart Companies Use Environmental Strategy to Innovate, Create Value, and Build Competitive Advantage with Andrew Winston (2006).

  • The Green to Gold Business Playbook: How to Implement Sustainability Practices for Bottom-Line Results in Every Business Function with P.J. Simmons (2011).

• Daniel Esty’s Accomplishments as the Commissioner of Connecticut’s Department of Energy and Environmental Protection (2011-14).

  • Regulatory Transformation at CT DEEP.

  • Formulating and Launching the United States First-ever Green Bank.

  • Success of the Green Bank: Mobilized $1 billion in Clean Energy Investments by 2015, and the Green Bank Concept spread around the U.S. and the World.

• Recent Book Publications:

  • A Better Planet: 40 Big Ideas for a Sustainable Future (2019)

    • Special Essay: From Red Lights to Green Lights.

  • Values at Work: Sustainable Investing and ESG Reporting with Todd Cort (2020)

    • Special Essays: Creating Next-Generation and Investment-Grade Corporate Sustainability Metrics.

  • Advanced Introduction to U.S. Environmental Law with Donald Elliot (2021)

• Ongoing Work at the World Trade Organization with Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala (WTO Director-General).

• Co-founding The Remaking the Global Trading System for a Sustainable Future Project (Greening Global Trade).

• Daniel Esty’s Advice to Listeners: Commitment to Ideas and Action.

Note: This podcast is for informational purposes only and should not be considered as investment advice. The interview took place on 29th August 2023.