The European Climate Exchange (ECX) managed the product development and marketing for ECX Carbon Financial Instruments (ECX CFIs), listed and admitted for trading on the ICE Futures Europe electronic platform. For a time it was a subsidiary of the Chicago Climate Exchange, but eventually became a sister company. Both companies as well as IFEX were owned by Climate Exchange Plc, a

holding company A holding company is a company whose primary business is holding a controlling interest in the securities of other companies. A holding company usually does not produce goods or services itself. Its purpose is to own shares of other companies ...

listed on the

London Stock Exchange London Stock Exchange (LSE) is a stock exchange in the City of London, England, United Kingdom. , the total market value of all companies trading on LSE was £3.9 trillion. Its current premises are situated in Paternoster Square close to St Pau ...

Alternative Investment Market AIM (formerly the Alternative Investment Market) is a sub-market of the London Stock Exchange that was launched on 19 June 1995 as a replacement to the previous Unlisted Securities Market (USM) that had been in operation since 1980. It allows ...

, founded by Richard Sandor. A chief executive was Patrick Birley, son of archaeologist Robin Birley. While products were listed on the London Stock Exchange, the sales and marketing team was initially based in Amsterdam, the Netherlands, under its first CEO, Peter Koster, before moving to London in 2007. Climate Exchange Plc was bought in April 2010 by

Intercontinental Exchange Intercontinental Exchange, Inc. (ICE) is an American company formed in 2000 that operates global financial exchanges and clearing houses and provides mortgage technology, data and listing services. Listed on the Fortune 500, S&P 500, and Russ ...

. ECX provided a pan-European platform for carbon emissions trading, with its

futures contract In finance, a futures contract (sometimes called a futures) is a standardized legal contract to buy or sell something at a predetermined price for delivery at a specified time in the future, between parties not yet known to each other. The asset ...

based on the underlying EU Allowances (EUAs) and Certified Emissions Allowances (CERs), which had attracted over 80% of the exchange-traded volume in the European market. ECX contracted (EUA and CER Futures, options and

spot contract In finance, a spot contract, spot transaction, or simply spot, is a contract of buying or selling a commodity, security or currency for immediate settlement (payment and delivery) on the spot date, which is normally two business days after t ...

s) were standardised exchange-traded products. LCH.Clearnet was the designated clearing house prior to 2008, later all trades were cleared by ICE Clear Europe. More than 100 businesses, including companies such as

Barclays Barclays () is a British multinational universal bank, headquartered in London, England. Barclays operates as two divisions, Barclays UK and Barclays International, supported by a service company, Barclays Execution Services. Barclays traces ...

, BP, Newedge, E.ON UK, Endesa, Fortis,

Goldman Sachs Goldman Sachs () is an American multinational investment bank and financial services company. Founded in 1869, Goldman Sachs is headquartered at 200 West Street in Lower Manhattan, with regional headquarters in London, Warsaw, Bangalore, Ho ...

Morgan Stanley Morgan Stanley is an American multinational investment management and financial services company headquartered at 1585 Broadway in Midtown Manhattan, New York City. With offices in more than 41 countries and more than 75,000 employees, the fir ...

and

Shell Shell may refer to: Architecture and design * Shell (structure), a thin structure ** Concrete shell, a thin shell of concrete, usually with no interior columns or exterior buttresses ** Thin-shell structure Science Biology * Seashell, a hard o ...

signed up for membership to trade ECX products. Using a process called 'order-routing', several hundred clients could access the market via banks and brokers without having to be a member.

Protests

On 1 April 2009,

Camp for Climate Action The Camps for Climate Action are Political campaign, campaign gatherings (similar to peace camps) that take place to draw attention to, and act as a base for direct action against, major Global warming#Causes, carbon emitters, as well as to devel ...

protesters set up a campsite and farmers' market outside the European Climate Exchange in Hasilwood House in Bishopsgate, City of London, to protest against

carbon trading Emission trading (ETS) for carbon dioxide (CO2) and other greenhouse gases (GHG) is a form of carbon pricing; also known as cap and trade (CAT) or carbon pricing. It is an approach to limit climate change by creating a market with limited ...

as a "false solution" to the problem of

climate change In common usage, climate change describes global warming—the ongoing increase in global average temperature—and its effects on Earth's climate system. Climate change in a broader sense also includes previous long-term changes to ...

. On 23 July 2010, European Climate Exchange's

website A website (also written as a web site) is a collection of web pages and related content that is identified by a common domain name and published on at least one web server. Examples of notable websites are Google, Facebook, Amazon, and W ...

was targeted by

hacktivists In Internet activism, hacktivism, or hactivism (a portmanteau of ''hack'' and ''activism''), is the use of computer-based techniques such as hacking as a form of civil disobedience to promote a political agenda or social change. With roots in hack ...

operating under the name of . The website showed a spoof

homepage A home page (or homepage) is the main web page of a website. The term may also refer to the start page shown in a web browser when the application first opens. Usually, the home page is located at the root of the website's domain or subdomain. ...

for around 22 hours in an effort to promote the contention that

is a false solution to the

climate crisis ''Climate crisis'' is a term describing global warming and climate change, and their impacts. The term and the alternative term ''climate emergency'' have been used to describe the threat of global warming to humanity (and their planet), and to u ...

References

{{Authority control Climate change policy Commodity exchanges Companies formerly listed on the London Stock Exchange Futures exchanges

Protests

See also

References