Our Markets
As environmental problems ranging from global warming to clean water supply are becoming more prevalent, many policy leaders, market participants and informed observers have come to the conclusion that market-based solutions are superior to command-and-control regulation in providing effective and least costly solutions. Whether the underlying motive is social responsibility or government regulation, both voluntary and compliance markets efficiently allocate capital to mitigate environmental impacts.
Leading environmental markets have developed throughout the world. Building off the success of the U.S. EPA's Acid Rain Program which successfully reduced SO2 and NOx emissions from the power sector in the 1990s, Europe created a cap-and-trade market to reduce CO2 emissions through the European Union Emissions Trading Scheme (EU ETS), currently the largest carbon market in the world. While there presently is no national compliance program in the US for carbon emissions, regional US schemes have been implemented in various parts of North America including the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI) and the upcoming California Carbon Market which will commence in 2012.
GreenX futures and options contracts help emitters to manage exposure to environmental costs and allow project developers to finance their emission reduction ventures.
