Consultants PricewaterhouseCoopers and financial brokers Cantor Fitzgerald have launched a global internet exchange for trading greenhouse gas emissions.
The project was unveiled in the Hague where 185 countries are negotiating rules to achieve the cuts in greenhouse gas emissions they agreed to at the UN climate change summit in Kyoto three years ago.
Emissions trading is one of the methods countries will be able to use to meet their Kyoto commitments. The new bourse, to be called CO2e.com, will start by trading carbon dioxide emissions and will later be extended to include other greenhouse gases, said a spokesman for the project.
"We have developed a nine-step process that caters to all types of users in all types on industries," said Steve Drummond, leader of climate change financial advisory services for PricewaterhouseCoopers.
"From requesting emissions measurement to developing an entire emissions reduction project requiring design, engineering and financial expertise, through the execution of trades, CO2e.com makes those specialise resources directly available."
Emissions have been traded in the United States for a number of years and the market is estimated to be worth between US$50 million and US$100 million.
The US government has predicted emssion trading worldwide could be worth US$3 trillion by 2010.
