Carbon Offsets Daily

The market for Certified Emission Reductions (CERs) or the carbon credits issued by the UN's (CDM), when the Lieberman-Warner bill was amended to make provision for US industries to purchase international carbon offsets. The prices increased throughout May and their as well..

New concerns over supply of the Kyoto CDM carbon credits, bullish signals on demand and the rising world oil price have combined to push up the price of issued CERs on the secondary market by almost 20 per cent since April 30.

The rising CER prices can be attributed primarily to the ever-increasing gas prices, which have led to an increase in demand for coal in Europe. This in turn has rendered EU carbon emissions permits more expensive, affecting the CER secondary market. In addition, the recent earthquake in China -the leading supplier of CERs, has imposed fueling the price hike.

China is the number one supplier of Carbon Credits (CC), , and they show no signs of slowing down. Good news on paper, yet last year alone, Shanghai fell short of its goal of 4% improvement in energy efficiency, and two of the major environmental indicators were pointing in the wrong direction. These indications show that with all China’s economic good intentions, the environmental problems are too deep to simply expect Carbon Credits to function like a magic wand.

But India, the supposed number two with 6% and , has reached a plateau in its overall growth. Still, futures prices reached an all-time high of Rs 1,283 per CER (certified emissions reduction) on May 27, and the 295 Indian companies registered to trade CER are doing so aggressively.  

It remains to be seen whether current technological and economic strategies will be sufficient to combat the massive pollution existing in the world’s two leading traders of carbon credits.

The (GREENSX), which claims to be the first social stock exchange in North America, plans to launch what they are calling a new, “'Web 3.0 eBAY.COM AUCTION STYLED'” online electronic bulletin board and social network dedicated to Direct Public Offerings (“DPO”) and to the secondary market trading of SEC exempted Regulation A, SB-1, SB-2, small company offering registration (SCOR) shares and carbon trading under the United States Securities Act of 1933, with focus on small eco-friendly, socially responsible and sustainable businesses."

By autumn 2008 they should be live. Check them out .