|
|
|
|
National Tree Day Planet Ark Home
|
|
|
||
|
IPE Carbon Futures Delayed Till Early February |
||
|
Mail this story to a friend | Printer friendly version
|
||
| UK: December 22, 2004 | ||
|
LONDON - The European Climate Exchange, part-owned by the IPE, expects to launch its carbon dioxide emissions futures contract in early February, three months later than first planned, a company official said on Tuesday.
|
||
|
The launch has been postponed partly because of delays in setting up electronic registries to store and track CO2 allowances traded by companies in the European Union's emissions trading scheme which starts on January 1. "We are still expecting to be able to trade from early February," Albert de Haan, commercial director of the European Climate Exchange (ECX), told Reuters. The ECX, a joint venture between London's International Petroleum Exchange and the Chicago Climate Exchange, had originally hoped to launch the contract last month. The London Clearing House, which will clear the CO2 futures, is still checking the contract for legal and operational issues, de Haan said. The contract can only be launched once registries in at least Germany, Britain and the Benelux countries are up and running, he added. The IPE is competing with three other European power bourses to launch CO2 contracts and grab a share of a market that could be worth billions of euros a year. On Monday, German energy exchange EEX said it would launch its CO2 spot market in late February once the country's registry was operating. Under the EU scheme, industrial sites are set CO2 limits. If companies exceed their quotas they have to buy allowances from firms which have undershot their targets. The scheme, the first international emissions market, is the centrepiece of the EU's efforts to meet its Kyoto Protocol commitments and curb its greenhouse gas pollution.
|
||
|
REUTERS NEWS SERVICE
|
||
|
