Climex News Update

Don't Offset CO2, Retire Them, via Climex

2008-07-23T02:57:54Z

At the age of 25, Dan Lewer is going into retirement -- carbon emissions retirement that is. Lewer is co-founder of a new online carbon offset company called Carbon Retirement, which launched on July 15.
Carbon Retirement offers consumers and companies a novel approach to offsetting their carbon footprint by letting them dip into the European Union's Emissions Trading Scheme.
Now in its second phase running from 2008-2012, the EU scheme sets an emissions cap for its heavy industry and allocates a fixed number of permits, called EUAs, each allowing the bearer to pollute or trade the equivalent of one tonne of carbon dioxide (CO2). After an offset purchase is made on its website, Carbon Retirement buys the corresponding EUAs on the spot market, from CO2 exchanges like EXAA in Austria and Climex in the Netherlands. Spot EUAs currently trade around 24.50 euros (US$38.93) a tonne (Source: Reuters)

]]> While traditional offset vendors sell verified emission reduction credits generated by clean energy projects like hydro dams and wind farms, often in developing countries, Carbon Retirement buys and "retires" EU permits on behalf of its clients.
By retiring the EUAs, Carbon Retirement removes them from the market, rendering them unusable by the heavy-polluting companies. This equates to one less tonne of CO2 that the 12,000 or so participating installations are able to emit.

The idea for Carbon Retirement was conceived late last year when Lewer and his friends were planning a ski trip to France. The group looked into offsetting the emissions from their flights with the traditionaloffset certificates. "We are environmentalists, the kind of customers of a typical carbon offset company," Lewer told Reuters.
"But we found that although most offsets seemed environmentally-sound, the market as a whole seemed really complex and difficult to evaluate."

Although global trade in voluntary offets more than tripled in 2007 to 65 million tonnes of CO2 sold for some US$330 million, accusations of poor quality offsets and double-counting continue to plague the market.

"It struck us that the EUA retirement process was one that could address all these problems," Lewer said.

HOW IT WORKS
Carbon Retirement charges a 10 percent premium on spot EUA prices to cover costs, and an additional five percent for unexpected price volatility between the initial sale and when Carbon Retirement buys them from the market.
"If the price rises in that time, we lose money, but if it drops significantly, we use any windfall profits to retire more EUAs ... The 10 percent mark-up is all we keep," Lewer said.
In the first phase of the EU's scheme (2005-2007), the market was long, meaning too many permits were allocated to participants. The EUA market crashed as a result.
"Had we launched this in phase 1, any EUAs sold would have been environmentally worthless," Lewer said.
Carbon market analysts collectively forecast a short market in the second phase based on tighter caps set last year by the European Commission, a view also shared by Lewer.
"(We) have a fairly high degree of confidence that phase 2 will be short ... and with every EUA we retire, we're helping to make it even shorter."

With tighter supply comes higher prices, and analysts estimate that EUAs, which are also closely correlated to oil and power, could rise as high as 100 euros a tonne of CO2 if energy prices continue to climb.
Traditional offsets command between three and seven euros.
"If EUAs get a lot more expensive, it obviously makes it a more difficult sell for us, particularly to our corporate clients," Lewer said.
"If you look at our business model, it's evident that we're never going to make millions out of this. This is predominantly an environmentally-motivated project."

Lewer would not say how many EUAs Carbon Retirement has sold so far, nor would he predict how many it is expecting to sell.

Story by Michael Szabo

50,778 VERs sold in Climex Auction

2008-07-22T16:02:52Z

During the fourth VER auction on the Climex Auction Platform all VERs on offer were sold on a forward basis. A total of 50,778 validated VERs were on offer from two Chinese Hydro Projects with vintages from 2006 to 2008. Verification and delivery are expected later this year. The transaction was supported by Caspervandertak Consulting and Gansu Tonghe Investment Project Consulting Co. Ltd. who prepared the documentation for the projects and the emission reductions and presented the projects to Climex.
This was the first forward auction of VERs on Climex. One project sold at � 3.50. This price included the costs of verification. The other project sold at � 3,00. In this price the verification costs were not included.
The next VER auction on Climex is scheduled for 28 August 2008. During this auction around 23.500 Social Carbon VCS VERs from a Fuel Switching to Renewable Biomass project in Brazil will be on offer with vintages from 2008 and 2009. Part of the volume consists of issued VERs and part of the volume will be sold on a forward basis.

Short term volatility; longer term more certainty

2008-07-17T08:20:58Z

Traders note a very volatile CO2 price trend and don't know what to expect tomorrow; neither do we.... These days very active traders may loose some ground indeed. Nevertheless, traders that need to ensure long term compliance for their clients can feel more certain. The overall perspective for 2020 didn't change much. For news on tighter CER supply we had news on greater shortage when aviation links up. Moreover, this shortage combined with the strategy of banking extra allowances when prices fall, will make long term prices remain between Euro 35 and Euro 40. So, today's contract for 2014, noted at the ECX for Euro 32 looks interesting!

Schwarzenegger slams Bush administration on global warming

2008-07-14T10:49:26Z

California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger said the Bush administration's decision to delay a decision on regulating greenhouse gases showed that it did not believe in global warming. Schwarzenegger, in an interview with ABC television broadcast Sunday, said it would have been insincere for the administration to take action on the harmful emissions with only six months left in George W. Bush's presidency.
"Well, to be honest with you, if they would have done something this year, I would have thought it was bogus anyway... because you don't change global warming and you don't really have an effect by doing something six months before you leave office," he told ABC on Friday.
Schwarzenegger spoke on the day the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) issued a report offering no new action against emissions and calling for 120 days of public comment, essentially leaving any decision to the next administration.

]]> Taking action at this late stage in Bush's second four-year term would not have been credible, said Schwarzenegger, who signed a historic bill in 2006 that made California the first US state to impose limits on global warming gases.

"It doesn't sound to me believable at all. The sincerity is not there," the governor said.

"I think that the way they have done it is much better, because it just really means basically this administration did not believe in global warming, or they did not believe that they should do anything about it since China is not doing anything about it and since India is not willing to do the same thing, so why should we do the same thing," he said.

The EPA's decision to put off any action followed a Supreme Court ruling last year ordering the agency to devise ways to regulate greenhouse gas emissions from motor vehicles under the Clean Air Act.

The Bush administration has fiercely opposed any imposition of binding emissions limits on the nation's industry and has refused to ratify the Kyoto Protocol on reducing greenhouse gas blamed for global warming.

Poland Joins East EU States Seeking CO2 Plan Change

2008-07-07T00:02:02Z

Poland has joined seven eastern new member states of the European Union in demanding changes to the bloc's plans for curbing greenhouse gas emissions to fight climate change, its environment minister said on Friday. Maciej Nowicki told Reuters that Warsaw wanted auctioning of permits for the power sector to emit carbon dioxide phased in from a starting level of 20 percent in 2013 instead of the 100 percent proposed by the European Commission from 2013.
He said he had presented a joint position with Hungary, Slovakia, Romania, Bulgaria, Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia to take account of the specific problems of fast-growing former communist economies with carbon-intensive energy sectors.

]]> He said district heating installations built in the communist era should be given special treatment to avoid pushing up prices for heating, which might force people to heat their homes by burning cheap, highly polluting coal.

"Then we would have smog, problems with air pollution and even more CO2," he said on the sidelines of a meeting of EU energy and environment ministers.

France, which took over the EU's rotating presidency this week, has made climate change its top priority and hopes to settle concerns among east European states that curbs on carbon dioxide will push up power prices and stunt economic growth.

The eight eastern states with fast growing catch-up economies are urging the EU to ease their pain when it overhauls the Emission Trading Scheme (ETS), the bloc's main tool to curb global warming that makes companies pay for permits to emit CO2.

To ease their transition to a low-carbon economy, the European Commission has proposed that 10 percent of the proceeds from auctioning CO2 permits in rich states be given to poorer states.

Nowicki said the 10 percent was helpful, but called for a further 10 percent for those countries that had cut emissions from 1990 -- just as the east European economies did when they faltered after the collapse of communism. (Reporting by Pete Harrison; Writing by Paul Taylor; Editing by Dale Hudson)

Story by Pete Harrison

Carbon Market Looks Past G8 to US Election

2008-07-06T23:59:18Z

Carbon market traders and backers of clean-energy projects aren't holding their breath for a strong statement on fighting change during this week's G8 summit and are more focused on who wins November's US election.
Market players say they don't expect any breakthrough agreements on fixed emissions reductions targets at the talks at a secluded Japanese resort on the island of Hokkaido. But some are hoping for the leaders to strongly support renewable energy as a way to fight rising greenhouse gas emissions that are blamed for global warming (Reuters)

]]> "In general, nobody's expecting a lot from this G8. They'd like to see something positive on carbon and greenhouse gas emissions come out of it but I don't there's too much expectation right now," said Anthony Sneed, director of operations for Asia Carbon Exchange, a trading platform for emissions trading.

The G8 leaders agreed last year in Germany to "seriously consider" halving greenhouse gas emissions by 2050 but there are doubts US President George W. Bush will agree to a mid-century target unless developing nations back emissions curbs as well.

Leaders from several of the world's biggest emerging markets, including China and India, will meet G8 members in Japan on Wednesday to discuss climate change.

"I am not expecting a lot this early in the process ahead of the December 2009 Copenhagen meeting where they are supposed to have a final agreement for post-2012," Sneed told Reuters.

World nations are trying to agree on a replacement for the UN's Kyoto Protocol that will bind all nations to emissions curbs. Kyoto's current phase, which ends in 2012, binds only 37 rich countries to curbs and excludes big developing states.

"The US will play a big part in this and right now it appears the US will have to wait till after the elections to make some kind of meaningful input to these negotiations because we have a lame-duck presidency," Sneed said.

"BUSINESS AS USUAL"

The head of the UN Climate Change Secretariat, Yvo de Boer, said fixation on a far-away, vague 2050 target was unhelpful.

"It doesn't make explicit who will be doing what to achieve that minus 50 and ... it doesn't tell you what the baseline for that minus 50 is," he told Reuters on Friday.

"What the carbon market needs is where are we going to be in 2020, what is going to be next round of commitments, because that specifies supply and demand."

Prices for carbon emissions issued under the Kyoto Protocol's rules are rising, in part reflecting soaring oil and gas costs.

"I think it's business as usual," said Sudhir Bhat, director of project finance at Swiss firm First Climate, which trades emissions and develops clean energy projects.

"People are trying hard to make projects work. I think the industry recognises there is a market and there is a need for this and they are pushing on."

He added that he hoped the G8 would commit to promoting renewable energy around the world.

The Kyoto Protocol allows rich countries to meet their limits by buying emission rights from developing nations.

The rights come from clean-energy projects developed in poor states. Tradeable certified emissions reductions (CERs) are issued for the projects per tonne of emissions reduced.

But the rights system runs out in 2012 unless the world agrees on a broad replacement for the Kyoto Protocol.

"The CER market is quite robust now. It's been in a nice trend for the past couple of months. People are very happy to see the prices over 20 euros for CERs per tonne," said Sneed.

"Everyone expects the carbon market to be here in some form or another. It's just hard to know the format." (Editing by Rodney Joyce)

Story by David Fogarty

Climex VER Auction of 45,000 pre-CDM VERs

2008-07-01T13:37:24Z

A total of around 45,000 VERs from two small Hydro Projects in China will be on offer in a VER Auction on the Climex Exchange. The auction is scheduled for 17 July 2008.

]]> The pre-CDM VERs stem from 2006 � 2008 vintages and will be validated and verified by T�V Sued and accredited with the VER+ standard. VCS II is possible on request. The auction will start at minimum prices of �3 and �3.50.

Members of Climex automatically receive full details on the auction and the project. Buyers interested in participating in the auction can contact Climex for more information or register for free membership to the Climex exchange at the website: www.climex.com.

The auction is scheduled for 17 July from 14.00 - 16.30 hours Central European Time. The format of the auction will be open, which means anonymous bids will be visible to all participants.

�With these auctions we offer buyers a direct way to purchase the carbon credits they need, straight from a project and in an easy manner.�, Axel Posthumus, CEO of Climex commented, �The main goal of the Climex auctions is to create standardisation, liquidity and transparency, to optimise the distribution chain and to provide easy access to Carbon Emission Rights at low costs.�

Climex to execute allocation Auctions for Austrian Government

2008-07-01T13:20:58Z

Bundesministerium f�r Land- und Forstwirtschaft, Umwelt und Wasserwirtschaft (BMLFUW), Austria
Austria will offer for sale by auction 400,000 EU-Allowances (EUAs) annually, during the second trading period 2008-2012. The regulation in which the modalities for the auction are defined is currently under appraisal and the first auction is expected to take place in autumn 2008.

]]> The Austrian Federal Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry, Environment and Water Management (BMLFUW) is responsible for the sale of EUAs, which can be used for compliance under the EU Emissions Trading Scheme (EU ETS) during the second trading period. As a result of an EU-wide tendering procedure, Climex & �EKV will carry out the auctions which will therefore take place on the Climex trading platform (www.climex.com).

During the second emissions trading period (2008 - 2012) the Austrian Government will allocate an average of 30.33 million emission allowances to Austrian installations participating in the EU ETS every year. According to the Austrian allocation plan and the respective ordinance, 2 million EUAs (about 400,000 per year) - accounting for 1.3% of the total amount - will be auctioned throughout the period.

Well in advance of the first auction, a course will be organised in order to provide information on rules, processes and the procedures of the auctions. Members of Climex can directly participate in the auctions.

The official announcement can de found on the website of the BMLFUW (www.lebensministerium.at) and the Austrian Emissions Trading Registry (emissionshandelsregister.at). The announcement will also be published on www.co2markt.at and www.climex.com, as well as related news and further details.

Carbon trading set to dominate commodities

2008-06-27T11:24:39Z

The market in greenhouse gas emissions could outstrip the conventional commodities markets to become the biggest traded commodity, the head of the US Commodities Futures Trading Commission said yesterday. Bart Chilton, commissioner of the CTFC, said: "The potential size and scope of a structured carbon emissions market in the US is unequivocally vast. It is certainly possible that the emissions markets could overtake all other commodity markets."
Carbon trading was worth about $64bn last year, according to the World Bank, but the US accounted for a small fraction of this. Most of the trading - about $50bn - was carried out under the European Union's emissions trading scheme, with nearly all of the rest carried out under the Kyoto Protocol, which the US has not ratified.

]]> But Point Carbon, a carbon market analyst company, has estimated that the global carbon market could be worth more than $3,000bn in 2020 if the US were to participate, through setting up its own federal cap-and-trade system to limit carbon emissions and through an international agreement to succeed the Kyoto treaty.

Mr Chilton gave a slightly more cautious view yesterday, saying: "Even with conservative assumptions, this could be a $2,000bn futures market in relatively short order." Carbon markets also have an effect on other traded commodities such as coal, oil, gas and electricity.

Carbon trading was set up under the Kyoto Protocol as a mechanism to help countries cut their emissions. Under cap-and-trade systems, a ceiling is placed on companies' emissions and they can trade their unused quota with one another. This method is supposed to ensure that carbon is cut at the lowest possible cost.

The US is moving closer to setting up a federal cap-and-trade system. An attempt last month to pass a bill for such a system fell foul of procedural obstacles, but many believe a similar bill will be brought forward again under the next president, when it is likely to have more chance of passing. Barack Obama and John McCain, the presidential candidates, both support a cap-and-trade system.

German Power, Oil - what fuels CO2 prices?

2008-06-26T13:19:38Z

During the last weeks we saw a steady increase in CO2- prices. EUA Dec.08 increased from about 25.20�/t in May by approx. 4.0� to 29.20�/t until 1 July. During that phase we saw the Dec12 break the 33�/t and even the 34�/t. The bullish trend was also seen in the whole energy market, especially for Crude oil, NBP gas and electricity prices. During the last weeks it has been observed, that the EUA prices were correlating stronger with the oil prices, than with the German power prices.

]]> Rising oil prices lead to rising CO2 prices. The reason for this is not too surprising. Through index-linked formulas, the oil price pulls the gas price, making, on the other hand, carbon-intensive coal more attractive to energy suppliers to burn for their energy production. That in return leads to an increased demand for EUAs.

During the same period, sCER prices were even outperforming EUA prices. The sCER contract rose to its peak until Mid June by approx. 5 � to 21.90 �/t for Dec08 contracts. There are several reasons fuelling the price development of sCERs. The main reason is the fresh downward adjustment of CER/ERU supply forecast, with lower volumes expected in 2010-2012. According to Point Carbon, the declining revision was 1.6% down from their previous estimate. The strong price increase of sCERs has led to a narrowing of the EUA-sCER 08 spread by approximately 1�.

Another interesting question is, how the market reacts towards the uncertainty of the connection between ITL and CITL (see the article on this topic in this Newsletter). Many companies planned to use CERs for their 2008 compliance. To do so, the connection has to be functional before May 2009. If the link is not running, ETS participants will need to borrow EUAs from 2009 or try to purchase their EUA need on the market. This would also pull EUA prices up.

There are several factors having influence on the development of EUA prices and currently, the only way the CO2 prices are going seems to be upwards. Many market analysts corrected their EUA price estimations for 2008-2012 upwards recently. Point Carbon e.g. updated their average price forecast for 2008-2012 by 2� to 32�/t and forecast an average price of 25�/t, for 2008. At the moment, it seems, that CO2 prices are driven by oil prices and they seem to stay bullish, although OPEC promised a higher oil supply, during their meeting at 22 June 2008.

Currently, it seems that oil prices have a strong influence on the CO2 prices. However, political decisions like the link between ITL and CITL or the level of CER/ERU which will be used after 2012, still influence the rather immature carbon market.

When and how will the US carbon market link-up with the EU ETS?

2008-06-26T13:15:03Z

By Jos Cozijnsen

In an early June session, the Lieberman-Warner-Boxer proposal for an economy wide cap-and-trade system in the USA did not survive the vote. To be clear, the vote that was held was not a vote on the bill, but on: whether to stop debating the bill and proceed to a vote on the bill itself.

]]> 48 Senators appeared to be ready to accept the bill and voted to stop debating, with another 6 senators absent (including Obama, Clinton, McCain) who signaled that if they had been present, they would have voted to stop debating and accept the bill. These are at least two dozen more votes than the previous time when a comparable bill was proposed. It means that a total of 54 senators would have voted to stop debating and proceed to vote on the bill itself, though 60 are needed to adopt the bill. Nevertheless, Senator Lieberman said the international observers should be gratified that there is a growing support in the Senate to support the Bill.

Ambitious targets; wide coverage
The bill, named The Climate Security Act, aimed to cut the total US emissions by 66% by 2050. It would lead to a 2% reduction annually between 2012 and 2050, based on 2005 emission levels. The bill would have capped CO2 from 87% of US power plants, oil refineries and other emission sources, cutting emissions to 19 % below current levels by 2020 and 71% below current levels, by 2050.

Opposition mobilised
Opponents said it would cost jobs and raise fuel prices. Tens of amendments were submitted to the 500-paged proposal. But it didn�t come to a debate, because not enough senators voted to do so. Should the vote have been positive this time, then enactment of the proposal would not have been likely to occur. President Bush has consistently opposed a cap-and-trade plan and had vowed to veto this bill if Congress approved it.
Senate leaders opposed to the bill used a variety of tactics during weeklong debates on the Senate floor, including a request by Republicans to read an updated version of the 491-page bill aloud, which took 10 hours. Senate Republican leader McConnell said the debate will have no effect on either climate change or gas prices.

US cap-and-trade under the next president
Environmental groups are optimistic that a new president and Congress will adopt strong climate legislation in 2009; the earliest entry into effect will be 2011however, just before the post-Kyoto commitment period. This is not certain yet. It is not clear if new senators will support CO2 caps. Also, some senators who already voted in favour of the bill notified that they nevertheless want important changes to the bill. In order to implement a nationwide cap-and-trade system supported by at least 70 senators, the following legal provisions are expected to be made ultimately:
� Use of domestic offsets from the agricultural sector;
� Use of credits generated by avoiding national tropical deforestation (�REDD�);
� Use of allowances from countries with a cap (EUAs and/or ERUs);
� Disallow the use of CDM credits (unless CDM will be phased out for larger developing countries, i.e. China and India);
� No link with emission trading systems from countries that allow CDM as offset mechanism.

To be able to link up with the EU ETS, the following scenarios are possible (provided the US is able to implement a strong enforced system on time):

� No direct linking, if the EU will allow CDM and US will allow REDD until after 2020;
� As of 2012, linking discounts for US and EUA allowances (for example -10% if 10% of the compliance emissions may be covered with CERs) and vice versa, based on the differences between the systems and the commensurate CO2 costs for companies;
� Full linking as of 2012, when the EU and US require to surrender a % CO2 allowances for goods imported from China and India, if they still disagree on emission targets as of 2020 (to prevent �carbon leakage)
� Indirect linking through the carbon market as of 2009 when US companies, under their post 2011 system are allowed to use previous emission reductions and credit purchases as �reward for early actions� to meet compliance post 2011.

17,000 VERs sold in Climex Auction on 14 May

2008-06-26T13:11:54Z

On 14 May the third VER auction was held on the Climex Auction Platform. 37,764 pre-CDM VCS II VERs from a Chinese Wind project from 2006/2007 were on offer. 17,000 VERs were sold for prices ranging between � 4.75 to 5 in three transactions. The auction started with a minimum price of � 4.50.

]]> Members of the Climex Auction Platform received a Term Sheet and Sales contract prior to the auction. Because the VERs on offer had already been validated and verified, the auction was organised so that a transaction in the auction meant the actual closing of the sale. Buyer and Seller have signed the contracts provided by the Seller.

�This is a relatively new market in Europe where there are currently a limited number of buyers but which is expected to grow�, Axel Posthumus, CEO of Climex said, �With the VER auctions we want to offer buyers a direct way to purchase the credits they need straight from a project in an easy manner. The main goal for Climex auctions has always been to create standardisation, liquidity and transparency, to optimise the distribution chain and to provide access to carbon emission rights against low costs. We hope to provide a new group of players access to VERs and this auction proved this is working. Many potential buyers followed the auction with interest and hope more VER auctions will follow and we will do our best to accommodate and organise these. In May we also executed the first exchange traded Gold Standard VER transaction and we are working hard to expand the Climex VER Spot Platform.�

Climex standpoint towards HFC and large Hydro

2008-06-26T13:05:41Z

Recently Climex has received quite a number of questions with a view to our standpoint towards HFC[1] and large scale Hydro projects. Therefore we would like to explain our policy and procedures with regard to CER Spot trading:

]]> ▪ Climex will only allow issued CERs from HFC, LULUCF[2] and large scale Hydro (> 20 Mw) onto its platforms if the CER�s origin has been made transparent by the seller. This way, it is up to the buyer to decide if he wants to buy these CERs and at which price.

▪ At the moment full transparency regarding the origin of the CERs is only available on the Auction Platform. When a seller puts an offer on the Auction Platform, he has to disclose and describe the origin of the CERs. All available information about the CERs can be attached and will be visible to Climex members.

On 17 January 2008, Climex realised the first ever cleared spot CER (Certified Emission Reduction) transaction in the world. Since then cleared CER/ERU spot trading is a standard function on Climex, which enables you to trade EUAs, CERs and ERUs on one and the same screen.

Nevertheless, CER Spot Trading has been experiencing a slow start, because of the missing link between the ITL and CITL. As long as this link is not in place, CER Spot Trading will only be available through one of the active Registers. One of these registers is the Swiss Register and Climex is fully supports trading via this route .

Currently, some members either have rights and/or collateral available on the platform, so cleared trading of Spot CERs is available. Climex offers the following possibilities:
▪ Trading on the Continuous Spot Platform
Here all volumes of issued CERs and ERUs can be traded on working days from 09.00 � 17.00 hours. The same transaction fees apply as for trading EUAs .

▪ Trading on the Spot Auction Platform
Auctions can be organised on request, for both selling and buying CERs with specific characteristics which are expected to lead to a deviation from the market price (for example Gold Standard CERs or large Hydro CERs). Regarding auctions, project information or buyer�s requirements will be visible to all participants before the auction.

[1] The abbreviation HFC used herein refers to chlorine-free hydrogen-containing fluorinated hydrocarbons.
[2] LULUCF = land use, land-use change and forestry.

Are you our 100th member??????

2008-06-26T13:03:26Z

At the day of publication of this Newsletter Climex has 91 registered participants. If you have not joined us yet, we would encourage you to �wake up� and do so now to be part of the fastest growing Carbon Exchange. We are on our way to welcome our 100th member. Of course, we will not let this go by unnoticed and the 100th member will receive a special welcome gift; a Philips WAKE UP LIGHT.

]]> The Wake Up Light was designed to wake you up smoothly by using a Dawn Simulator. The Wake Up Light makes you wake up full of energy, every morning.

Not participating on Climex yet? Register now online and you could be the one winning the Wake Up Light: http://www.climex.com/RegistrationForm.aspx
The contracts will be drawn up in your name and sent to you by e-mail.

Should you need assistance on completing the forms, please contact our Customer Service Desk at csdesk@climex.com or phone: +31 30 2919940

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

2008-06-26T13:00:42Z

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.