The 21st century is the carbon-first century

In societies and ecosystems, any resource that limits growth and health is always highly valued. Limiters have often become a standard of exchange: the word "salary" derives from the Roman Legions being paid in allotments of essential but scarce salt.

Today, the crucial limiting factor facing humanity is the excess of carbon being excreted by civilization, with less and less carbon being embodied in pristine forests and healthy oceans. The threat of climate instability has become so large that we must face the absolute reality of global chemistry. Thankfully, human understanding has grown so large that we can.

With a value placed on carbon we can do what humans always do: we can trade it. We can control our nemesis by profiting from paying attention to it. Thus motivated, we will figure out how to reduce, capture and sequester it. The assessing, buying, selling, trading, accounting and sequestering of carbon will be the financial industry that dominates the 21st century and beyond.

With Antenna's introduction of MMA/Renewable Ventures (now FRV), we helped put the term "PPA" into the American lexicon. Experience with our friends at New Energy Finance and the California Clean Energy Fund have helped us understand the role that policy plays. Our work preparing the way for renewable-energy plants has helped us understand the variety of ways that projects can be financed. We've even guided venture capital firms as they gain familiarity and entrance into this new industry.

We're looking forward to leveraging our experience with the banking industry and online lending to support a national deployment of green banking, to the tune of $40 to $50 billion. Antenna is avidly engaged in this most fascinating, essential and evolving financial industry.