CME's Green Exchange handles record volume

Green Exchange LLC, a new carbon market owned by CME Group Inc.'s New York Mercantile Exchange, handled a record amount of emissions permits after carbon offset prices surged on supply concern.

Green Exchange handled 5.29 million metric tons of emissions permits yesterday, the exchange said today in an e- mailed statement. The bulk of this was made up of 4 million tons of Certified Emission Reduction option contracts, the London- based exchange said in a separate e-mail.

The exchange opened its London office in May and hired Les Male, previously commercial director at APX-Endex, and Henrik Hasselknippe, formerly head of global analysis at Point Carbon, to develop its carbon trading business.

"We are pleased to see our volumes begin to rise," Tom Lewis, Green Exchange's chief executive officer, said in the statement. "We look forward to the upcoming months as we continue to work with the trading community to assist them in gaining access to our markets."

Green Exchange yesterday handled 1.28 million tons of CERs and 10,000 tons of EU carbon allowances for December delivery, exchange data show. This compares to 3.2 million tons of 2010 CERs and 8.73 million 2010 EU allowances that traded on Ice Futures' European Climate Exchange.

UN CERs for December have risen 11 percent so far this month after regulators said they are reviewing projects that reduce hydrofluorocarbons, raising concern that the supply of credits will plunge.