Ruben Lubowski

Ruben Lubowski is Chief Carbon and Environmental Markets Strategist at Lombard Odier Invesment Managers.  Based in New York, Ruben is an economics and policy expert on carbon markets and on finance approaches for conservation.  He is part of the investment team managing a fund that invests and trades in carbon markets globally and he also helps to develop new carbon and nature-related investment products.  Ruben has held senior leadership and advisory positions with environmental organizations and investors, including most recently as Chief Natural Resource Economist and Associate Vice-President for Climate and Forests at the Environmental Defense Fund (EDF) in New York. He has advised governments and stakeholders around the world on carbon markets design and co-authored the World Bank-ICAP handbook on emissions trading systems design, widely used by policymakers and stakeholders worldwide.  He also serves as Adjunct Professor at Columbia University, specializing in carbon pricing.  

He co-founded and serves as Special Adviser to the Emergent Forest Finance Accelerator, which manages and provides the platform for the LEAF Coalition, a public-private initiative that mobilized US$1 billion to protect tropical forests last year.  He has previously held professorship and economist roles in related fields at New York University, Harvard University, and the US Department of Agriculture. He is the author of over 70 journal publications, research papers and books and has won various environmental awards and grants.  He received his PhD and master’s as well as bachelor’s degree from Harvard University.