Ex-Enron Trader Discovers Greed Is Good—for the Environment
Carbon markets create an unlikely alliance between speculators and the green movement.
Carbon trader Ulf Ek strolls through Richmond Park in London with Dollar, a Maltese-Yorkie mix.
Photographer: David Vintiner for Bloomberg Markets
Anytime Ulf Ek needs to think, he goes for a walk in London’s Richmond Park with Dollar, a Maltese-Yorkie mix. The 2,500-acre expanse of fields, forest, and deer herds about 12 miles southwest of the financial district has long been a bucolic respite from urban life.
In the 17th century, King Charles I moved his court to a nearby palace to avoid the plague. For Ek it’s a break from the frenzy of the energy markets; he knows just how fraught that world can be, having lived through a price meltdown that cost him a fortune and made him nauseous.