The European Climate Exchange (ECX) has decided to introduce options contracts on Certified Emission Reductions (CERs) which will be available for trading from May16, 2008.
The contract, formally known as the ICE ECX CFI CER Options Contract, will be listed and admitted to trading on the ICE platform and cleared by LCH Clearnet.
The European Climate Exchange (ECX) manages the marketing and product development for ECX Carbon Financial Instruments (ECX CFIs), listed and admitted to trading on the ICE Futures electronic platform.
Commenting on the new product, ECX chief executive, Patrick Birley, said, ?Listed options on CERs will enable market participants to manage price rise more efficiently and take advantage of the underlying volatility.
Following the successful start of CER futures, we believe this contract will further help the development of the maturing market for products linked to the Clean Development Mechanism.?
ECX contracts are standardised and all trades are cleared by LCH Clearnet. More than 80 leading businesses have signed up for membership to trade ECX products. In addition, several thousand clients can access the market via banks and brokers.
ECX and ICE futures is the most liquid, pan-European platform for carbon emissions trading, attracting over 80% of the exchange-traded volume in the market.