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 ofCO2-equivalent reductions), making the first week volume total for the CEROption contract 1.15 million tonnes.
The Green Exchange introduced the CER options contract for clearing on NYMEXClearPort® and trading on the NYMEX trading floor beginning on April 20 fortrade date April 21. The contract, with commodity code VG, is a European style option that expires three business days prior to the expiration of theunderlying CER futures contract. The initial contract months are December2008, 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 GreenExchange.
The Green Exchange, which launched trading on March 17, 2008, offers acomprehensive range of environmental contracts for markets focused onsolutions to climate change, air pollution, and other environmental challenges. The Green Exchange currently offers a slate of environmentalfutures and options contracts that include European Union carbon allowancefutures (EUAs), EUA options, CER futures, CER options, and US SO2 and NOxallowance futures.
