Club Lunch- From Coral Reefs to Carbon Markets: A Writer’s Adventure

Ms. DiPerna spoke about how her work as a writer and film producer led her around the world, not only to various unique adventures and experiences, such as facing down gold miners in the Amazon and forming an unlikely trio with Jacques Cousteau and Fidel Castro to arrange the release of 50 political prisoners from Cuba, but also to her current interest in environmental finance. Through her creative work, Ms. DiPerna became aware of the financial underpinnings of environmental issues, leading her to several executive positions and policy adventures, such as securing U.S. support for a 50-year moratorium on oil and minerals exploration in Antarctica that eventually became international law. She has also worked on the team to spearhead the Chicago Climate Exchange, the world’s first integrated cap-and- trade system to address climate change, and also the Tianjin Climate Exchange, the first pilot carbon market in China. The latter exchange has helped launch the national emissions trading system in China, which was announced last year and is now being readied for launch.

Paula DiPerna has worked as a writer and co-producer with the Cousteau Society, where she wrote more than a dozen documentary films, traveling across the world with the ship “Calypso” and Cousteau film teams. She has held positions as President of the Joyce Foundation in Chicago and President of CCX-International. Ms. DiPerna currently serves as Special Advisor to the international environmental disclosure group, CDP, and is a Visiting Fellow at Civic Exchange in Hong Kong. She is also a member of the Council on Foreign Relations in the U.S.