Gold Standard’s First Exchange-Traded Carbon Transaction Completed on Climex

On 7 May the first Gold Standard exchange-traded carbon offset transaction was completed on the Climex Voluntary Platform. In the transaction, Rabobank purchased Gold Standard Verified Emissions Reductions (VERs) from Tricorona.

APX serves as the registry provider and administrator of The Gold Standard VER RegistryTM. The APX platform allows participants to originate, track, manage and retire carbon commodities. Climex recently launched a continuous electronic trading platform for VERs, which is now linked to the Gold Standard Registry. The APX registry system makes it possible to transfer VERs in a quick, transparent and reliable way from one owner to the next in a transaction.

Frank Larsgard, Senior Trader with Tricorona, a Swedish based investment and trading company in environmental instruments said, “Tricorona is very active in acquiring and selling Gold Standard CERs and VERs and the fact that we now have a VER Registry and Trading Platform to further support and standardise the market is a good step forward.”

“For Rabobank this is a very efficient way to purchase the VERs that we need”, explains Daan Dijk, of the Corporate Social Responsibility Department within Rabobank. “With the availability of both the Gold Standard Registry and the Climex Trading Platform we can assure even further reliability and transparency to the stakeholders involved.”

“We are enthusiastic about the launch of Gold Standard trading on Climex ,” said Axel Posthumus, CEO of Climex. “This is an important step in stimulating market development and helping it mature, and we anticipate the growth in volume and transactions on the Climex Voluntary Platform. We have an important role to play in making spot trading of (Gold Standard) VERs available to the marketplace.”

“The integration of the Gold Standard Registry with Climex creates an important link between voluntary programs and the financial markets, which will speed the flow of investment, provide greater price transparency, and allow for faster attainment of environmental goals,” said John Melby, President of APX. “APX’s high-quality and transparent data infrastructure plays a critical role in the management of environmental commodities and we look forward to supporting the growth of this rapidly emerging market.”

The Gold Standard Foundation is a recognized leader in the VER arena and has established the world’s leading independent standard for the voluntary carbon market. The Gold Standard label distinguishes renewable energy and energy efficiency projects under the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM), Joint Implementation (JI) and in the voluntary offset market.