The European Climate Exchange (ECX) managed the product development and marketing for ECX Carbon Financial Instruments (ECX CFIs), listed and admitted for trading on the ICE Futures Europe electronic platform. For a time it was a subsidiary of the Chicago Climate Exchange, but eventually became a sister company. Both companies as well as IFEX were owned by Climate Exchange Plc, a holding company listed on the London Stock Exchange's Alternative Investment Market, founded by Richard Sandor. [1] [2] A chief executive was Patrick Birley, son of archaeologist Robin Birley. [3] [4] While products were listed on the London Stock Exchange, the sales and marketing team was initially based in Amsterdam, the Netherlands, under its first CEO, Peter Koster, [5] before moving to London in 2007. Climate Exchange Plc was bought in April 2010 by Intercontinental Exchange. [1]
ECX provided a pan-European platform for carbon emissions trading, with its futures contract based on the underlying EU Allowances (EUAs) and Certified Emissions Allowances (CERs), which had attracted over 80% of the exchange-traded volume in the European market. ECX contracted (EUA and CER Futures, options and spot contracts) were standardised exchange-traded products. LCH.Clearnet was the designated clearing house prior to 2008, later all trades were cleared by ICE Clear Europe.
More than 100 businesses, including companies such as Barclays, BP, Newedge, E.ON UK, Endesa, Fortis, Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley and Shell signed up for membership to trade ECX products. Using a process called 'order-routing', several hundred clients could access the market via banks and brokers without having to be a member.
On 1 April 2009, Camp for Climate Action protesters set up a campsite and farmers' market outside the European Climate Exchange in Hasilwood House in Bishopsgate, City of London, to protest against carbon trading as a "false solution" to the problem of climate change. [6] [7]
On 23 July 2010, European Climate Exchange's website was targeted by hacktivists operating under the name of decocidio #ϴ. The website showed a spoof homepage for around 22 hours in an effort to promote the contention that carbon trading is a false solution to the climate crisis. [8]
The Montreal Exchange, formerly the Montreal Stock Exchange (MSE), is a derivatives exchange, located in Montreal, Quebec, Canada that trades futures contracts and options on equities, indices, currencies, ETFs, energy and interest rates. Since 1965, it has been located in the Tour de la Bourse, Montreal's third-tallest building. It is owned by the Toronto-based TMX Group.
The spark spread is the theoretical gross margin of a gas-fired power plant from selling a unit of electricity, having bought the fuel required to produce this unit of electricity. All other costs must be covered from the spark spread. The term was first coined by Tony West's trading team on the trading floor of National Power Ltd in Swindon, UK during the late 1990s and quickly came into common usage as other traders realised the trading and hedging opportunities.
The International Exchange, now ICE Futures, based in London, was one of the world's largest energy futures and options exchanges. Its flagship commodity, Brent Crude was a world benchmark for oil prices, but the exchange also handled futures contracts and options on fuel oil, natural gas, electricity, coal contracts and, as of 22 April 2005, carbon emission allowances with the European Climate Exchange (ECX).
The Chicago Climate Exchange(CCX) was a voluntary, legally binding greenhouse gas reduction and trading system for emission sources and offset projects in North America and Brazil.
The Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) is a United Nations-run carbon offset scheme allowing countries to fund greenhouse gas emissions-reducing projects in other countries and claim the saved emissions as part of their own efforts to meet international emissions targets. It is one of the three Flexible Mechanisms defined in the Kyoto Protocol. The CDM, defined in Article 12 of the Protocol, was intended to meet two objectives: (1) to assist non-Annex I countries achieve sustainable development and reduce their carbon footprints; and (2) to assist Annex I countries in achieving compliance with their emissions reduction commitments.
The European Union Emissions Trading System is a carbon emission trading scheme which began in 2005 and is intended to lower greenhouse gas emissions by the European Union countries. Cap and trade schemes limit emissions of specified pollutants over an area and allow companies to trade emissions rights within that area. The EU ETS covers around 45% of the EUs greenhouse gas emissions.
Flexible mechanisms, also sometimes known as Flexibility Mechanisms or Kyoto Mechanisms, refers to emissions trading, the Clean Development Mechanism and Joint Implementation. These are mechanisms defined under the Kyoto Protocol intended to lower the overall costs of achieving its emissions targets. These mechanisms enable Parties to achieve emission reductions or to remove carbon from the atmosphere cost-effectively in other countries. While the cost of limiting emissions varies considerably from region to region, the benefit for the atmosphere is in principle the same, wherever the action is taken.
European Energy Exchange (EEX) AG is a central European electric power and related commodities exchange located in Leipzig, Germany. It develops, operates and connects secure, liquid and transparent markets for energy and related products, including power derivative contracts, emission allowances, agricultural and freight products.
Carbon rationing, as a means of reducing CO2 emissions to contain climate change, could take any of several forms. One of them, personal carbon trading, is the generic term for a number of proposed carbon emissions trading schemes under which emissions credits would be allocated to adult individuals on a (broadly) equal per capita basis, within national carbon budgets. Individuals then surrender these credits when buying fuel or electricity. Individuals wanting or needing to emit at a level above that permitted by their initial allocation would be able to purchase additional credits in the personal carbon market from those using less, creating a profit for those individuals who emit at a level below that permitted by their initial allocation.
Intercontinental Exchange, Inc. (ICE) is an American company formed in 2000 that operates global financial exchanges and clearing houses and provides mortgage technology, data and listing services. Listed on the Fortune 500, S&P 500, and Russell 1000, the company owns exchanges for financial and commodity markets, and operates 12 regulated exchanges and marketplaces. This includes ICE futures exchanges in the United States, Canada and Europe, the Liffe futures exchanges in Europe, the New York Stock Exchange, equity options exchanges and OTC energy, credit and equity markets.
NASDAQ OMX Commodities Europe is a trade name of NASDAQ OMX Oslo ASA, the single financial energy market for Norway, Denmark, Sweden and Finland. Before 1 November 2010, it was known by the name Nord Pool. As of 2008, Nord Pool was the largest power derivatives exchange and the second largest exchange in European Union emission allowances (EUAs) and global certified emission reductions (CERs) trading.
Certified emission reductions (CERs) originally designed a type of emissions unit issued by the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) Executive Board for emission reductions achieved by CDM projects and verified by a DOE under the rules of the Kyoto Protocol.
EU Allowances (EUA) are climate credits (or carbon credits) used in the European Union Emissions Trading Scheme (EU ETS). EU Allowances are issued by the EU Member States into Member State Registry accounts. By April 30 of each year, operators of installations covered by the EU ETS must surrender an EU Allowance for each tonne (1,000 kg) of CO2 emitted in the previous year. The emission allowance is defined in Article 3(a) of the EU ETS Directive as being "an allowance to emit one tonne of carbon dioxide equivalent during a specified period, which shall be valid only for the purposes of meeting the requirements of this Directive and shall be transferable in accordance with the provisions of this Directive".
LCH is a British clearing house group that serves major international exchanges, as well as a range of OTC markets. The LCH Group consists of two subsidiaries: LCH Ltd based in London and LCH SA based in Paris.
BlueNext was a European environmental trading exchange, considered the largest CO2 permit spot market, with headquarters in Paris, France. On October 26, 2012, BlueNext announced that it would close permanently its spot and derivatives trading operations as of December 5, 2012.
KDF Energy is the leader greenhouse gases emissions trading on the Romanian market. The company was set up in 2002, has subsidiaries in Bulgaria, Greece and Lithuania and is fully controlled by Romanian citizen George Brăiloiu.
Pedro Moura Costa is an entrepreneur involved in environmental finance with a focus on the international efforts for greenhouse gas (GHG) emission reductions. Of particular relevance, he was the founder and President of EcoSecurities Group Plc., one of the leading project developers for the international carbon markets, and has written widely about the policy and science of climate change mitigation, including contributions to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) reports.
Richard L. Sandor is an American businessman, economist, and entrepreneur. He is chairman and CEO of the American Financial Exchange (AFX) established in 2015, which is an electronic exchange for direct interbank/financial institution lending and borrowing. The AFX flagship product, the AMERIBOR benchmark index, reflects the actual borrowing costs of thousands of regional and community banks across the U.S. and is one of the short-term borrowing rates, along with the Secured Overnight Financing Rate, vying to replace U.S. dollar Libor as a benchmark in the U.S.
European Commodity Clearing (ECC) is the leading clearing house for energy and commodity products in Europe and the central clearing house for the Global Commodity Exchange, EEX Group. ECC assumes the counterparty risk and guarantees the physical and financial settlement of transactions, providing security and cross-margining benefits for its customers. As part of EEX Group, ECC provides clearing services for EEX, EEX Asia and EPEX SPOT with additional services provided to Power Exchange Central Europe (PXE). In addition, ECC also provides clearing services for the partner exchanges HUPX, HUDEX, NOREXECO, SEEPEX and SEMOpx.
