EMA Honors Andy Ertel with Inaugural Environmental Markets Pioneer Award
The Environmental Markets Association presented its first Environmental Markets Pioneer Award to Andy Ertel, CEO of Restoration Climate, during EMA’s 30th Annual Meeting in Annapolis, Maryland, on October 6, 2026.
Andy’s career has followed environmental markets from their beginning. After starting out in the NYMEX energy trading pits, he built one of the first emissions and carbon brokerage teams at Natsource and completed his first carbon transaction in 1997, the year EMA was founded. He went on to co-found EMA and the Green Exchange, and he founded Evolution Markets, which helped finance hundreds of projects in more than 30 countries. Andy was inducted into the Energy Risk Hall of Fame in 2003, led the sale of Evolution Markets to Xpansiv in 2023, and today leads Restoration Climate.
“Andy has been part of this industry since before it had a name. As a founding member of EMA, he helped establish the association and the standards that practitioners rely on today. His work has influenced how environmental markets are designed, financed, and run. Many of us are building on what he started.”
– Jack Velasquez, Director of Environmental Markets North America at Marex and former EMA Chairman
“As one of EMA’s three founding members, I’m humbled to receive this award. When we started EMA, there were about 20 people in environmental markets worldwide. Today, hundreds of thousands of people work on issues from smog to climate change to biodiversity, proving what markets can do for the environment. I founded Restoration to carry that work forward and put the power of markets behind the defining challenge of our time: climate change. I accept this award on behalf of everyone building this industry.”
– Andy Ertel, CEO, Restoration Climate
The Pioneer Award recognizes an individual whose vision and leadership have shaped the environmental markets industry through policy, innovation, market development, or advocacy.
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