NYMEX begins trade of emissions contracts

By Bernie Woodall

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - The New York Mercantile Exchange and Evolution Markets on Monday launched The Green Exchange with futures trading based on emissions, including one linked to the ongoing European carbon market.

The Green Exchange is a partnership between global energy exchange leader NYMEX and Evolution Markets, a leading environmental and energy brokerage based in the New York area.

Two of the new contracts are based on European emissions and two are U.S. emissions trading schemes.

These are the first wave of Green Exchange contracts related to environmental concerns, which will within a few months include renewable energy credits and voluntary carbon credits.

Trading of the new contracts will not be affected by the purchase of the NYMEX by the CME Group Inc, said Evan Ard, spokesman for Evolution Markets. A definite agreement on that sale was announced on Monday.

The United States lags behind the European Union which in 2005 established a mandatory climate exchange that has traded billions of dollars of credits.

The new venture will for some of its contracts compete with the biggest exchanges for trading carbon emissions credits, the European Climate Exchange and the first one, the Chicago Climate Exchange, opened in 2003. Both of those are run by London-based Climate Exchange Plc.

Ard of the Green Exchange said he expects volume of trade to grow for the new contracts.