EEX: CO2 Spot Trading On EEX Also Possible During Temporary Switch-Off Of Registry

On Friday, 11th November 2005 the trading participants on the Spot Market for Emission Allowances on the European Energy Exchange (EEX) will be able to take part in the auction and in continuous trading as usual. Since the corresponding transactions will first be recorded in the internal accounts of the buyers and of the sellers on EEX and will only be booked within the German National Emissions Trading Registry later on via a collective account, the temporary switch-off of the regis-ter on this day will not affect trading in Leipzig.

By means of the registration of a transaction in the National Emissions Trading Regis-try, which resembles an electronic land register and is kept by the German Emissions Trading Authority (DEHSt) at the German Federal Environmental Agency, ownership in the respective emission allowances passes from the seller to the buyer. Until that time EEX guarantees both physical and financial settlement of the transactions.

Moreover, derivatives trading on EEX will also not be affected by the switch-off. On this market, the exchange offers futures with the delivery date of 1 December for the years 2006 to 2012 respectively, which hence have the same delivery date as the contracts which are usually traded on the OTC market.

EEX operates a Spot and a Derivatives Market for energy and energy-related products and, with 128 trading participants from 16 countries, it is the energy exchange in conti-nental Europe which boasts the highest number of trading participants and the biggest turnover. In addition to electricity and electricity futures, options on electricity are also traded and trading in CO2 emission allowances commenced in March 2005. The range of services provided by EEX is complemented with related services such as the joint clearing of exchange transactions and over-the-counter transactions (OTC clearing).