(CHICAGO – September 15, 2009) Chicago Climate Exchange® (CCX®), a Climate Exchange plc company, announced today it is partnering with the Carbon Disclosure Project (CDP) on efforts related to emissions disclosure and greenhouse gas management as CDP’s exclusive Global Exchange Partner. 

“CDP has done so much to help investors make well informed decisions and to elevate the discussion on the need to manage greenhouse gas emissions from a business perspective,” said CCX Chairman and founder Richard L. Sandor. “Through our new partnership with CDP, we will further efforts to cost-effectively and meaningfully reduce emissions.”
 
CEO and co-founder of the Carbon Disclosure Project Paul Dickinson said “CCX and the Climate Exchange companies are playing a vital role globally in the development of carbon trading as a mechanism to drive emissions reductions. Through our partnership, we will provide policy makers and the marketplace with new insights into how good measurement, reporting and carbon management not only cuts emissions, but also unlocks the key to significant commercial opportunities for companies and investors alike.”

As CDP’s exclusive Global Exchange Partner, CCX will also join CDP in producing a white paper on managing greenhouse gas emissions and the associated commercial and revenue opportunities for economic entities in China. In 2008, CCX established the Tianjin Climate Exchange (TCX), a joint venture with Chinese National Petroleum Corporation Asset Management Company and the city of Tianjin, and the first integrated environmental emissions reduction, management and trading platform in China.

The Carbon Disclosure Project is an independent not-for-profit organization which holds the largest database of corporate climate change information in the world. The data is obtained from responses to CDP’s annual Information Requests, issued on behalf of institutional investors, purchasing organizations and government bodies.  

Sandor also serves as Executive Chairman of Climate Exchange plc. Climate Exchange plc owns CCX, including the CCX-subsidiary Chicago Climate Futures Exchange® (CCFE®), as well as the European Climate Exchange (ECX). Climate Exchange plc is a publicly traded company listed on the AIM division of the London Stock Exchange (CLE.L).

About Chicago Climate Exchange and Chicago Climate Futures Exchange

CCX is an Exchange whose objectives are to apply financial innovation and incentives to advance social, environmental and economic goals. CCX, which began trading in 2003, is the world’s first and North America’s only legally binding, rules-based greenhouse gas emissions allowance trading system, as well as the world’s only global system for emissions trading based on all six greenhouse gases. CCX members are leaders in greenhouse gas management and mitigation, including offset providers and offset aggregators, and located throughout the United States. CCX members derive from all sectors of the global economy, including the public sector, and emissions reductions being achieved through CCX by major utilities, corporations, cities, states and counties, are the only reductions in North America being achieved through a legally binding compliance regime, subject to independent third party verification provided by FINRA and price transparency. The founder, Chairman and CEO of CCX is economist and financial innovator Dr. Richard L. Sandor, who was named a Hero of the Planet by Time magazine in 2002 for his founding of CCX, and in 2007 as the “father of carbon trading.”

Chicago Climate Futures Exchange (CCFE), a wholly owned subsidiary of the Chicago Climate Exchange, is a CFTC designated contract market which offers standardized and cleared futures and options contracts on emission allowances and other environmental products. Clearing services are provided by The Clearing Corporation, the only active independent futures clearinghouse in the world. Market surveillance services are provided by the National Futures Association, the industry wide, self-regulatory organization for the U.S. futures industry.

CCX, a U.S. corporation, launched its trading platform in 2003. In 2005, CCX launched the European Climate Exchange (ECX), now the leading exchange operating in the European Union Emissions Trading Scheme. Since 2006, both CCX and ECX have been owned by Climate Exchange plc, a publicly traded company listed on the AIM division of the London Stock Exchange (CLE.L).