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The Green Exchange™ today announces opening week volume for the first ever exchange-traded options contracts for carbon offsets. During the April 21-25 trade week, counterparties transacted 1,150 certified emissions reduction (CER) options contracts. One contract is the equivalent of 1,000 CERs (or 1,000 tonnes of CO2-equivalent reductions), making the first week volume total for the CER Option contract 1.15 million tonnes.
The Green Exchange introduced the CER options contract for clearing on NYMEX ClearPort® and trading on the NYMEX trading floor beginning on April 20 for trade date April 21. The contract, with commodity code VG, is a European style option that expires three business days prior to the expiration of the underlying CER futures contract. The initial contract months are December 2008, March 2009, June 2009, September 2009, December 2009, March 2010, June 2010, September 2010, December 2010, December 2011, and December 2012.
NYMEX President and Chief Executive Officer and member of The Green Exchange Executive Committee James E. Newsome said: “The Green Exchange is committed to being a leader among environmental exchanges, and our successful launch of the first ever options contract for carbon offsets demonstrates this. An initial week of trading under the CER options contract of more than one million tonnes is a great start. There is a clear need in the carbon market for these types of risk management tools, and they are particularly well suited to the global trading platform available on The Green Exchange.”
The Green Exchange, which launched trading on March 17, 2008, offers a comprehensive range of environmental contracts for markets focused on solutions to climate change, air pollution, and other environmental challenges. The Green Exchange currently offers a slate of environmental futures and options contracts that include European Union carbon allowance futures (EUAs), EUA options, CER futures, CER options, and US SO2 and NOx allowance futures.
Additional information on Green Exchange contracts and fees can be found on The Green Exchange website, www.greenfutures.com.
About Green Exchange
The Green Exchange initiative was introduced by NYMEX Holdings, Inc. (NYSE: NMX) in December 2007, with Evolution Markets, Morgan Stanley, Credit Suisse, JPMorgan, Merrill Lynch, Goldman Sachs, Tudor Investment, Constellation Energy, Vitol SA, ICAP, and RNK Capital. The new exchange will offer a comprehensive range of environmental futures, options and swap contracts for markets focused on solutions to climate change, renewable energy and other environmental challenges. For further information about The Green Exchange, please visit www.greenfutures.com.
