TRADING CARBON WITH CANTOR FITZGERALD

All the big boys are getting into the game…

Cantor Fitzgerald eyes U.S. carbon trading market; While Morgan Stanley and RNK Capital ink deal to trade emissions credits after 2012 Kyoto deadline
March 13, 2007 (Reuters via CNN Money)

- Financial services firm Cantor Fitzgerald has merged its previously separate U.S. pollutant brokerage with its carbon brokering business to…put to work in emerging carbon markets its U.S. environmental brokerage, which until now has focused on markets in pollutants like sulphur and nitrous dioxide.
- To do this it has merged the U.S. pollutants brokerage with its carbon brokerage Co2e, based in London, into a single business CantorCO2e…
- A power shift in the U.S. Congress last autumn has raised hopes for a federal U.S. carbon market…
- In Europe there's a similar view that carbon trading could present a longterm market.
Morgan Stanley and RNK Capital have completed the first deal to trade European Union carbon emissions permits for delivery after 2012…The Kyoto Protocol targets expire in 2012, but recent moves for example by the European Union to set a unilateral emissions target to 2020 is giving investors confidence that there will be long-term demand for permits.

- The EU has set up its own carbon trading scheme…setting emissions limits on its heavy industry while allowing companies to trade EU allowances (EUAs).
The next phase of the EU scheme also ends in 2012…
- U.S. investment bank Merrill Lynch bought a minority stake in clean energy project developers the Russian Carbon Fund…the investment arms of U.S. bank Citigroup and agribusiness Cargill Inc. bought a minority stake in UK-based Sindicatum Carbon Capital…Morgan Stanley bought a stake in Miami-based carbon project developer MGM International…