The Climate Trust, a mission-driven nonprofit that specializes in mobilizing finance for conservation projects, announced its fifth annual prediction list of carbon market trends.

The trends, which range from the maritime industry following aviation’s lead in carbon reduction commitments to increased dismantling of federal agencies addressing climate change, were identified by The Climate Trust based on interactions with their diverse group of working partners—government, investors, project developers, corporates, and the philanthropic community.

More links will be added to the cap and trade chain gang. North America has had two regional cap and trade markets operating the last several years, the Western Climate Initiative (WCI), involving California, Ontario and Quebec, and the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI), involving nine northeastern states. Mexico has just crashed the party announcing in mid-December plans to launch a national mandatory market in August 2018. The list of jurisdictions linking up with cap and trade markets will only grow in 2018.

Institutional investors will increasingly count social and environmental impact as part of their fiduciary obligation. Foundations will follow McKnight’s early lead by committing to invest endowment dollars (not just grant money) into climate mitigation and social improvement projects. Likewise, university endowments will adopt policies that address climate change in their investment portfolios as an integral part of their fiduciary commitment.

U.S. companies will voluntarily, and increasingly, report on financial policies and performance related to the environment and social responsibility. The Sustainability Accounting Standards Board (SASB) recently published its Exposure Draft Standards for 79 industries, with the public comment period having closed on December 31, 2017. We predict there will be a continued increase in the number of U.S. companies that choose to include discussion of their policies and performance regarding the environment, social responsibility and similar matters in their required external reports or in what is often referred to as a sustainability report.

Read the full article about trends in the carbon market at My Social Good News.