More about the Chicago Climate Exchange

wikipedia.org/wiki/Chicago_Climate_Exchange:

Chicago Climate Exchange (CCX) is the world’s first and North America’s only voluntary, legally binding greenhouse gas (GHG) reduction and trading system for emission sources and offset projects in North America and Brazil. CCX employs independent verification, includes all six greenhouse gases, and has been trading greenhouse gas emission allowances since 2003. CCX was launched prior to the commencement of trading in the European Union through the ETS system. To date, more than 120 CCX Members range from corporations like Ford and Motorola, to state and municipalities such as Oakland and Chicago, to educational institutions such as Tufts University and University of Minnesota, to farmers and the Iowa Farm Bureau.

CCX has an aggregate baseline of 226 million metric tons of CO₂ equivalent, which is equal to the United Kingdom’s annual allocation under the EU ETS. This would make CCX one of the largest “countries” in the EU CO₂ market, or 4% of U.S. annual GHG emissions.

Here is the CCX website.

The first Australian big member is AGL who have recently made a $2 billion investment in renewable energy, and are seeking to offset that investment.

Andhyodaya, an NGO based in Kerala, India, which promotes biogas production among poor farmers, has become the first Indian member of the United States-based climate exchange.

It is 10% owned by Goldman Sachs. Maurice Strong is on the board of directors of the Chicago Climate Exchange. He was a former Secretary General of the 1992 United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (the Rio Earth Summit - the start of global warming awareness). And on March 1st this year they announced their highest trading month (.pdf):

Chicago Climate Exchange (CCX®) announced today that the total
trading volume in the month of February was 3,712,100 metric tons carbon dioxide, making it the highest trading month in the history of CCX.

Global Warning Climate Change

AGL joins the Chicago Climate Exchange

Yes that is our AGL - Australian Gas and Light - and what are they doing in Chicago is looking for a mechanism whereby they can market their energy efficiencies and emissions savings to less efficient companies around the world. That's the beauty of global warming - abatement is an instantly globalised industry. :::[SMH: Energy giant embraces carbon trading]

THE energy giant AGL has said it will become the first big Australian company to join the Chicago Climate Exchange, a move that may embarrass the Federal Government as it wrangles over climate change.

The move will allow AGL to do something it cannot do at home: profit from cutting its greenhouse gas pollution in Australia.

It will help the company expand its renewable energy operations, including plans to build the largest wind farm in the southern hemisphere at Macarthur in Victoria. This will power about 190,000 homes.

AGL's managing director, Paul Anthony, told the Herald the company had invested almost $2 billion in renewable energy in the past 12 months. Mr Anthony said he hoped the board would soon agree to the big investment needed for the Macarthur wind farm. It has also just bought three "bio-mass" power stations in Queensland fired by, among other things, macadamia nuts.

This leave the Federal Liberal party, (the party of big business?) decidedly flat-footed.

For the past 10 years, the Howard Government has stalled on setting up a carbon trading scheme in Australia or ratifying the Kyoto Protocol on curbing greenhouse gas emissions, which would allow companies to trade in the European carbon market.

Now Australian companies have no real way to measure the cost of greenhouse gas pollution caused by carbon-intensive energy sources such as coal, oil and gas, except for the Chicago Climate Exchange, which puts the price at $US5 a tonne.

So if Australian companies cut their emissions and invest in renewable energy they can find it difficult to reap an immediate reward for their efforts, while polluting competitors who stick to coal-fired power are not penalised.

The good news is that there is an election coming up as soon as Howard announces. Then we can get on with our future.

Global Warning Climate Change