| | SEPTEMBER 20228IN MY OPINIONTHE EMERGENCE OF FUTURES CONTRACT FOR OFFSETTING CARBON OUTPUTEvery step one takes leaves a carbon footprint, and tracking these emissions and attempting to decrease and eradicate them is a need worldwide. Over the years, quite a few things have evolved in the carbon landscape. One key trend the sector is witnessing is that the carbon offset registries have become more robust with a tracking mechanism. Each carbon offset is assigned a unique serial number and entered into a registry, which gives the market additional certainty that you are getting what you paid for because it can be traced back to the emission reduction project.Another technological advancement and one that is extremely beneficial to the market is we now have a futures contract to streamline the buying and selling of offsets from global registries and emission reduction projects that trade on the Chicago Mercantile Exchange. It is called the global emissions offset futures contract and is distributed via CBL, a global leader in spot energy and environmental markets. Those contracts must meet specific requirements, and since this is the first futures contract in our market, it is exciting. It was only released last year, but I believe it was essential in moving the market forward in terms of price transparency. There is still a long way to go for the futures contract in the carbon markets.Moreover, in terms of carbon reduction, the most recent trends include discovering ways for carbon removal as well as carbon capture and storage, as these are currently expensive technology types. However, they are critical to our ability to achieve our carbon reduction goals. So, these two technology types are quite significant, and they are starting to be employed, but they are still a little too expensive to be put into effect at the existing price level of offsets.By Tina Reine, Director, Carbon MarketsTina Reine
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