The Environmental Markets Lab (emLab) is a team of scientists based at the University of California Santa Barbara that advances economic research to deliver practical solutions for people and the planet. In collaboration with implementing partners, we design, test, and implement scalable solutions that work across boundaries—connecting science with policy, data with decisions, and ambition with action—to create pathways toward a future where environmental and human well being mutually reinforce one another.
Our Programs
Leveraging our diverse expertise, we generate timely insights into effective and equitable solutions for Climate & Energy, Land & Freshwater, Ocean & Fisheries, and People & Poverty.
Climate & Energy
Advancing effective and equitable climate solutions
Land & Freshwater
Balancing multiple ecosystem services from the land
Ocean & Fisheries
Improving prosperity and sustainability of the ocean
People & Poverty
Strengthening the resilience of vulnerable communities and natural systems
emLab Blog: Our 2 Cents
Publications
The ability of marine protected areas (MPAs) to safeguard global biodiversity hinges on where and how much fishing effort occurs. Yet, MPA evaluations often simply assume that fishing effort inside new MPAs either disappears or moves elsewhere. We find that neither assumption is true.
Potential lost cap-and-invest revenue under the manufacturing decarbonization incentive
Meng and Wingenroth 2026
Balancing land use for conservation, agriculture, and renewable energy
Brock et al. 2026 Nature Communications
Is field size an indicator of farm size in smallholder-dominated croplands?
Xiong et al. 2026, Environmental Research Food Systems
Mapping on a budget: Optimizing spatial data collection for ML
Betti et al. 2026, Proceedings of the AAAI Conference on Artificial Intelligence
