Isra-Mart srl : Carbon Trade Exchange Moving to Sydney From London Gain From Climate Plans

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Isra-Mart srl news:

Carbon Trade Exchange, an online platform for businesses to trade emission-reduction credits, is moving its headquarters from London to Sydney as the Australian government seeks to introduce a price on carbon.

Efforts to curb greenhouse gas emissions are likely to turn Sydney into a regional hub for carbon trading, the exchange said in an e-mailed statement today. The plan will lead to at least 106 jobs in the city over five years, it said.

Australia, the world’s biggest coal exporter, has set a target of generating 20 percent of its power from renewable energy sources like wind and solar by 2020. To encourage businesses to shift from fossil fuels, Prime Minister Julia Gillard wants to start making polluters pay a fixed price for their emissions in July 2012 in preparation for a trading system that may begin as early as 2015.

Carbon markets allow companies and nations to buy and sell credits representing reductions in emissions of greenhouse gases, such as carbon dioxide. Some buy to comply with binding emission limits set by governments, while others purchase the credits voluntarily to reduce their carbon footprint.

Carbon Trade Exchange allows buyers and sellers to trade voluntary credits, as well as those issued by a United Nations program established under the 1997 Kyoto Protocol.

The fragmentation of that UN carbon market into domestic alternative trading programs “may be unavoidable” because nations haven’t been able to agree on an extension of the Kyoto Protocol, UN chief climate negotiator Christiana Figueres said in September.

London has traditionally been the hub of global carbon trading because of its proximity to the European Union, home to the world’s biggest emissions-trading market and the biggest buyer of UN credits.