Net Zero Markets, a company dedicated to developing risk management, trading and investment products in the global environmental markets space, has signed agreements with the European Energy Exchange (EEX) and AirCarbon Exchange (ACX) to list the Global Emission Reduction (GER)®, Net Zero Market’s flagship contract – an innovative approach to address the pain points of the Voluntary Carbon Market (VCM).^[1] The agreements with EEX – a leading exchange for carbon compliance schemes worldwide – and ACX – a pioneer in the VCM space, headquartered in Singapore – make the GER accessible across multiple time zones to global Voluntary Carbon Market (VCM) participants.

Thanks to the product’s innovative design, it will be appropriate for use by offsetters, offset retailers, project developers, investors and the wider trading community. Net Zero Markets believes widespread availability and use is critical to enable the increased liquidity necessary for the VCM to scale, ultimately supporting Net Zero targets.

The GER is built on the foundation of existing standards with appropriate overlays and innovative features that align with a path to Net Zero. The company expects the GER to be progressively listed on the exchanges and commence trading early in 2022.

Louis Redshaw, CEO of Net Zero Markets: “We are delighted to be working with EEX and AirCarbon on the launch of the GER. We have developed this product in conjunction with industry participants and believe its unique and innovative design will achieve the key goals of promoting liquidity and transparency to ensure funding flows to the projects that are needed to meet Net Zero.

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While well-meaning companies have bought and retired carbon offsets to play their part towards achieving Net Zero, many more are either confused and put off by the complexity of the market or have found later down the line that their offsets are not as effective as they had been led to believe.

This has created a dynamic where companies and other offsetters need to become experts in the carbon markets to be able to do the right thing. Net Zero Markets firmly believes that this is a prime reason why the VCM has not reached its full potential. Consumers shouldn’t need to be experts. If effective offsetting and removal is to happen at scale, buyers need to have confidence and the products need to be simple and transparently priced. The GER is designed to deliver all of these things in line with the recommendations of the Task Force for Scaling the Voluntary Carbon Markets.^[2] It is the perfect antidote to further fragmentation of the market.”

William Pazos, Managing Director of AirCarbon Exchange: “We are extremely excited to be working with the industry leading team at Net Zero Markets. Their wealth of experience in commoditizing emissions markets, coupled with our position as a leader in bringing commodity infrastructure to the carbon markets, has been instrumental in formulating the GER.

The process of creating the underlying spot GER architecture on ACX has been developed over a full year. We are now poised to deliver to the market a simple and elegant solution to the current pursuit of a core carbon contract. While many are trying to legislate a core contract, the GER creates this by delivering a broad-based solution in one contract.”

Tobias Paulun, Chief Strategy Officer of European Energy Exchange: “The voluntary carbon market can play a strategic role to achieve the Paris Agreement, complementing mandatory carbon pricing mechanisms. I am confident the GER represents the innovation that is needed and expected in the Voluntary Carbon Markets.

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The GER is planned to be offered alongside our existing products for carbon compliance markets in Europe at EEX but also in North America at Nodal Exchange, thus making them accessible to our global trading community.

An integrated offering for carbon markets, with both Spot and Futures instruments available, is key to bring the necessary liquidity to the market and scale up the VCM. We are excited to build this new market, together with our partners at NZM and ACX, but also with our customers.”