Climate Exchange weathers 'perfect storm'

Date: Friday 15 Jan 2010
LONDON (ShareCast) - Neil Eckert, chief executive of Climate Exchange, said the emissions exchange operator had to weather a ‘perfect storm’ of events in 2009 that hit activity in financial markets and pushed the reduction of global emissions further down the political agenda. Nevertheless, the company continued ‘to demonstrate outstanding growth in volumes and open interest’ in its mandatory market products, Eckert claimed, and maintained its dominant market shares of exchange traded volumes. European Climate Exchange (ECX) futures contract volumes in the second half of 2009 were 47% higher than in the second half of 2008, while options contract volumes grew 88%. ECX traded 2,436,072 contracts in the second half of 2009, an increase of 40% over the corresponding period of 2008, while ECX average daily volumes for toalled 18,603 contracts versus 13,311 contracts in the second half of 2008. Chicago Climate Futures Exchange (CCFE) average daily volumes improved to 18,603 contracts from 13,311 in the latter half of 2008 while Chicago Climate Exchange (CCX) trading volumes declined by 31% year on year in the second half.