CME Group to Launch CBL Core Global Emissions Offset Futures

CME Group, the world's leading derivatives marketplace, today announced it will launch CBL Core Global Emissions Offset™ (C-GEO™) futures on March 7, 2022, pending all relevant regulatory reviews. CBL C-GEO futures are intended to align with the Core Carbon Principles, an emerging set of transparent and consistent standards around the supply of carbon credits to be overseen by the Integrity Council for the Voluntary Carbon Markets.

"CBL C-GEO futures are the latest in our suite of risk management tools to help bring standardized benchmarks to the rapidly evolving voluntary carbon markets," said  Peter Keavey, Global Head of Energy and Environmental Products at CME Group. "As our clients closely follow the implications of Article 6 and other developments in this space, we are responding to demand for scalable market-based solutions that will allow them to execute their reduction strategies more effectively."

CBL C-GEO futures complement CBL GEO® and N-GEO™ futures, which launched last year. In 2021, over 57 million tons of CO2 equivalent were traded between the two contracts, with over 6.5 million offsets delivered through seven successful cycles. The pool of offset credits that underpin the CBL GEO, N-GEO and C-GEO contracts is deep, with approximately 230 million offsets available across these three different segments, offering participants choice in effectively meeting reduction targets.

C-GEO futures were jointly developed with Xpansiv market CBL. The contract will allow the physical delivery of energy, renewables and other technology-based voluntary carbon offset credits that meet quality and integrity criteria based on the Core Carbon Principles. The vintage eligibility of the credits will roll forward on a yearly basis, ensuring that the deliverable credits reflect evolving projects and markets.

"The CBL Core GEO spot contract has been tremendously well received, with more than 1 million metric tons traded since its January launch," said Xpansiv Chief Commercial Officer  Ben Stuart. "The launch of CBL C-GEO futures will bring expanded risk management and forward pricing capabilities to the market, the benefits of which have been clearly demonstrated by the introduction of futures on our GEO and N-GEO spot instruments."

CBL C-GEO futures will be listed by and subject to the rules of NYMEX. For more information, please see: www.cmegroup.com/c-geo.