Goldman Sachs Center for Environmental Markets Awards First Research Grants

NEW YORK, December 27, 2006 - The Goldman Sachs Center for Environmental Markets, established in November 2005 to examine market-based solutions to environmental challenges, has awarded its first research grants. The three grants, totaling more than $2.3 million, will fund programs focused on finding market-based solutions to climate change, including examining policy options for lawmakers, market opportunities for environmental technologies, and valuation of fragile ecosystems.

The grants have been awarded to:

• Resources for the Future, for support over one year of its Climate and Technology Policy Program, which seeks to advance economically sensible approaches to dealing with climate change. Anticipating the adoption and implementation of federal controls on greenhouse gas emissions, the Program’s main project brings together companies from across the spectrum of the U.S. economy to inform a report to be written by RFF researchers on well-vetted, detailed policy options, important criteria for policy assessment, and well-articulated concerns from which effective federal policy might be crafted.
  
  
• World Resources Institute, for a two-year project to analyze the viability of the various technology options that could be deployed both in the U.S. and elsewhere to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and diversify the world’s energy sources, including coal gasification, biofuels, renewable power, and carbon capture and storage, among others. The project will assess the financial and market barriers to deployment and scale-up of each technology, and the government policies and economies of scale needed for rapid deployment and delivery of the technologies to the market. The project will also include two in-depth reports analyzing the specific opportunities and issues associated with two of the most promising of the options developed.
  
  
• Woods Hole Research Center, for a three-year project to examine how to value forest ecosystems and analyze economic alternatives to cutting valuable rainforests. Competing demands on forests for land, soils, water, vegetation and carbon capture necessitate a method of valuing these ecosystems and their associated services in determining the true costs and benefits in making decisions on land usage. This project aims to understand how to value sustainable management of forest ecosystem resources and services at the local, national, and international levels.

“The Goldman Sachs Center for Environmental Markets is proud to be working with these three distinguished institutions, each with a reputation of finding innovative solutions and offering sound policy advice,” said Mark Tercek, Managing Director and Head of the Goldman Sachs Center for Environmental Markets. “These grants address critical climate change challenges and provide opportunities to design a road map for policymakers on a carbon emissions regulatory framework that will include a business perspective; examine the range of alternative energy solutions; and harness market forces to better understand the value of ecosystems.”

The Goldman Sachs Center for Environmental Markets was established when the firm instituted its environmental policy framework and supports independent research, programs, and other market-based opportunities with partners in the academic and nongovernmental communities to develop public policy and other options for establishing effective and efficient markets around climate change, biodiversity conservation and ecosystem services. The Center will disseminate the research and finding of these first three research grants through a combination of publications, conferences, strategic communications and targeted outreach to engage and educate clients and policy makers on climate change issues.

Goldman Sachs is a leading global investment banking, securities and investment management firm, which provides a wide range of services worldwide to a substantial and diversified client base that includes corporations, financial institutions, governments and high net worth individuals. Founded in 1869, it is one of the oldest and largest investment banking firms. The firm is headquartered in New York and maintains offices in London, Frankfurt, Tokyo, Hong Kong and other major financial centers around the world.

Contact: Christopher Williams
Tel: 212-902-5400
E: christopher.j.williams@gs.com