JPMorgan, which Knudsen said amassed the biggest investment portfolio of carbon permits, was tied for second place in producing new credits last year, behind Vitol Group and alongside Climate Change Capital Ltd., New Energy Finance said. JPMorgan sold its ClimateCare carbon offset developer to the unit's management in August.
Knudsen, who worked 27 years at the World Bank before joining JPMorgan on Sept. 11, 2007, originally planned to leave earlier this year and was persuaded to stay on to assess the bank's own environmental impact.
By the time he quit the environmental markets business "there were only a few of us left," he said. The unit had employed several "tens" of people around the world at its height. He declined to give specific details of staffing numbers because the information is confidential.
He plans to develop his own company, Real Options International, offering carbon securities analysis, and may tap the emissions market that California is due to start in 2013.
The U.S.'s failure to join a global market "was a large disappointment," Knudsen said. "You're starting over again."