The Environmental Markets Lab (emLab) is an interdisciplinary team of scientists based at the University of California Santa Barbara that conducts cutting-edge, data-driven research on the power, limitations, and design of market-based approaches to tackle the world's most pressing environmental problems. In collaboration with implementing partners, we aim to better align environmental objectives and economic incentives in support of sustainable livelihoods and a resilient planet.
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.
Charting a science course for the sustainable transformation of aquatic food systems
Agostini et al. 2025, ICES Journal of Marine Science
Leveraging remote sensing for transparency and accountability in Amazonian commodity supply chains
Ribeiro et al. 2024, One Earth
Sustainable-use marine protected areas to improve human nutrition
Viana et al. 2024, Nature Communications
stagg:: A data pre-processing R package for climate impacts analysis
Liddell et al. 2024, Environmental Modelling and Software