Kenneth J. Markowitz advises leading public- and private-sector clients on regulatory and policy developments associated with climate change. Mr. Markowitz provides counsel on risks and opportunities regarding emissions trading systems, carbon offset projects, clean technologies, energy efficiency and technology transfer. He works closely with Akin Gump’s public law and policy practice, assisting clients with policy development and issues before Congress, executive branch agencies and United Nations processes regarding climate change.

Prior to joining Akin Gump, Mr. Markowitz was the president and founder of Earthpace LLC, a global advisory firm that provides environmental policy, communications and management strategies.

At the request of the Dutch, U.S., Japanese and British environmental agencies, Mr. Markowitz led an international initiative among regulators, business and international organizations to strengthen compliance, improve investor confidence and ensure environmental integrity in the emissions trading systems. He facilitated a dialogue to develop best practices for assuring compliance, including the use of information technology, for monitoring, reporting and verification of emission reductions and carbon offset projects, a prerequisite for linking emissions markets.

Mr. Markowitz has assisted governments around the world to strengthen rule of law and build stronger environmental governance systems through performance measurement, adaptive management and public-private partnerships. He has advised countries including the Netherlands, the United Kingdom, Canada, Germany, Brazil, Argentina, Kenya, South Africa, Morocco, Jordan, Egypt, Japan, Thailand, Vietnam, Philippines, Costa Rica and elsewhere. He has helped clients navigate the United Nations Environment Programme, the European Commission, the World Bank, and the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) systems. He has counseled clients on international environmental agreements such as the Montréal Protocol on Substances that Deplete the Ozone Layer, the Convention on Biological Diversity, the Basel Convention, CITES and the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC).

Mr. Markowitz continues to play a central role in the management and evolution of the International Network for Environmental Compliance and Enforcement (INECE), the leading network of government officials from over 120 countries. In addition to his emission trading work, he has designed and led projects including capacity building for prosecutors and judges, compliance and enforcement indicators, hazardous waste and port security, fresh water governance, synergies among biodiversity treaties and illegal logging.

Mr. Markowitz has designed applications for the use of satellite remote sensing data in compliance monitoring, emergency response, environmental impact assessment, water resources and other regulatory contexts. He is the author of “The Legal Challenges and Market Rewards to the Use of Satellite Remote Sensing as Evidence” (Duke Environmental Law and Policy Forum, 2002).

Mr. Markowitz previously served as a senior attorney at U.S. EPA, where he received national recognition for his work on emergency and oil spill response, and in private practice as an environmental lawyer, counseling corporate and municipal clients in over 30 states on air, water, petroleum, waste and toxics. He served on the Commonwealth of Virginia’s Emission Trading and Banking Group, advising the commonwealth on the design and development of sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxide emission trading programs.

Mr. Markowitz earned his B.B.A. in finance from Emory University in 1985 and his J.D. in 1989 from American University’s Washington College of Law, where he was a dean’s fellow in corporate tax and an editor of the Journal for International Law and Policy. He is a member of the District of Columbia Bar. Mr. Markowitz serves on the adjunct faculty of the Washington College of Law; as a senior fellow at the University of California, Santa Barbara Bren School of Environmental Science and Management; and as a co-chair of the International Union for the Conservation of Nature, Commission on Environmental Law’s specialist group on compliance and enforcement.