Global Carbon Exchange is delighted to offer a CER transaction service for its customers.

This is very relevant for customers from countries like Australia that have not the required infrastructure in place to link to the UN CDM registry via the International Transaction Log (ITL), with an own account in Switzerland and the capability to assist clients in setting up own accounts to enable them to transfer CERs purchased to being delivered physically into their own account.

The Swiss registry was connected to the International Transaction Log (ITL) early December, and the Swiss registry operator has started to open the accounts that enable physical settlement of Kyoto carbon credit transactions. Switzerland became the second country after Japan having its registry connected to the ITL.

Entities that have an account in the Swiss or the Japanese registry can trade CER credits on a spot basis. Transfer of CERs is similar to the transfer of EUAs, whereby a seller may initiate the transaction through its registry account online.

Spot transactions with no delivery risk will lower the barrier to entry and will enable further participants to join the CER market.

Background of the ITL:

 
Two types of registry are being implemented:
Governments of the 37 Annex B Parties are implementing national registries, containing accounts within which units are held in the name of the government or in the name of legal entities authorized by the government to hold and trade units.

The UNFCCC secretariat, under the authority of the CDM Executive Board, has implemented the CDM registry for issuing CDM credits and distributing them to national registries. Accounts in the CDM registry are held only by CDM project participants, as the registry does not accept emissions trading between accounts.

In addition to recording the holdings of Kyoto units, these registries “settle” emissions trades by delivering units from the accounts of sellers to those of buyers, thus forming the backbone infrastructure for the carbon market.
Each registry will operate through a link established with the International transaction log put in place and administered by the UNFCCC secretariat. The ITL verifies registry transactions, in real time, to ensure they are consistent with rules agreed under the Kyoto Protocol
As EU trading legislation sets in place rules over and above those agreed for the Kyoto Protocol, a supplemental transaction log has been implemented by the European Commission. The Community Independent Transaction Log has been in place since the start of the scheme in 2005 and EU registries are now operating with it.
For the start of the Kyoto commitment period in 2008, EU registries are to switch their connections from the CITL to the ITL. The ITL will conduct “Kyoto checks” on transactions proposed by both EU and non-EU registries. In the case of transactions involving EU registries, the ITL will forward information to the CITL so that it can conduct “supplementary checks” defined under the EU scheme.