CME Group's Voluntary Carbon Emissions Offset Contracts Surpass 100 Million Offsets Traded

CME Group, the world's leading derivatives marketplace, today announced that combined volume across CME Group's voluntary carbon emissions offset contracts has surpassed 100,000 contracts traded, equivalent to 100 million carbon offset credits, or 100 million metric tons of CO2 equivalent.

"CME Group continues to play a critical role in the development of the carbon sector through our suite of voluntary carbon emissions offset products," said  Peter Keavey, Global Head of Energy and Environmental Products at CME Group. "This milestone of 100 million offsets traded is an exciting step in the path towards net zero, creating more transparency and liquidity that will be key to advancing strategies and meeting global environmental targets."

Market users have quickly adopted these risk management tools since the initial launch of Global Emissions Offset (GEO) futures and Nature-Based Global Emissions Offset (N-GEO) futures last year. Key highlights of how these markets have grown include:

• Combined open interest reached a record 20,763 contracts on March 29, 2022, representing over 20 million deliverable carbon offset credits, with open interest extending out to December 2024.
• Record average daily volume in March 2022 of a combined 1,000 contracts.
• Since launch, CME Group has had multiple clearing firms help facilitate ten successful deliveries, totaling over 8.8 million offsets, or 8.8 million metric tons of CO2 equivalent.
• Over 75 firms or brokers have executed trades in these products.
• Nearly half of total volume has come from Europe and the Middle East, followed by North America and Asia. 

GEO, N-GEO and C-GEO futures are listed by and subject to the rules of NYMEX. For more information, please visit: www.cmegroup.com/c-geo.