I spent this summer as a Summer Associate at Climate Finance Partners (CLIFI). CLIFI is a start-up fund launching a publicly traded ETF to create a global price for carbon offsets allowances. The ETF will support the maturation of new markets to increase the liquidity and size of the carbon markets around the world, accelerating awareness and action to reduce greenhouse gases. In the Summer Associate role, I supported fundraising activities to prepare for the launch of the ETF - including investor research & outreach, creation of investor pitch decks, and the creation of a white paper on the current state of investment in carbon exchange markets – co-authored with IHS Markit.

The launch of an ETF required significant understanding of capital markets, fundraising strategy, and the impact investor space. Courses such as corporate finance and capital markets were particularly beneficial. Also, involvement in the student impact investing organization Microlumbia served as a strong introduction to the world of impact investors – which were the target demographic of fundraising efforts for CLIFI.

The ETF was originally scheduled to launch at the end of summer 2019, however due to the innovative nature of the carbon ETF, there were several additional rounds of approval with the SEC and NYSE and was pushed back to early 2020. Therefore, the scope of the internship role shifted slightly – away from fundraising commitments and towards the strengthening of technical research reports and pitchbooks to be used at a later date. It was still largely a investor relations role, but more on the back-end than investor-facing meetings, as was the case in the first month on the team.

I learned a ton about global carbon exchange markets and regional differences. More broadly, I became more educated on current market mechanisms to drive towards a carbon-neutral economy. This was my first role in the investment space and it served as a solid reference point that will inform my career ambitions in environmental sustainability.