Shares in Climate Exchange fell 2 percent following the news.
LONDON (Reuters) - London-based clearinghouse LCH.Clearnet is launching its own over-the-counter carbon credit clearing service to rival that of its European Climate Exchange partner Climate Exchange PLC.
Shares in Climate Exchange fell 2 percent following the news.
LCH.Clearnet will offer clearing services for European Union Allowances (EUAs) and could steal a march on Climate Exchange by offering clearing services for U.N.-approved CER (Carbon Emission Reduction) credits from the start of 2008.
The initiative is being backed by London Energy Brokers Association (LEBA) members CantorCO2e, Evolution Markets, GFI, ICAP, Spectron, TFS and Tullett Prebon Energy.
!ADVERTISEMENT!A European Climate Exchange (ECX) spokesman said it had not decided what its response would be, but viewed possible future partnership with Clearnet as its favored option. Clearnet was not immediately available to comment.
Climate Exchange has been trying to launch its own CER futures contract. But in September it said there were delays because of contract wrangling with Clearnet, which already does its EUA clearing for the ECX, which it owns.
Shares in Climate Exchange were down 2.1 percent to 1146p by 9:25 a.m. EST, having earlier been flat at 1170p.
A Climate Exchange spokesman said the firm would press on with its plans to launch its own CER contract, and hoped to do so at the start of 2008.
Climate Exchange's Chief Executive Neil Eckert told Reuters he was not surprised by Clearnet's decision to launch its own CER service independently and that this would not preclude them from working together in future.
"We also want to get a CER contract on our screens (through ECX)," Eckert said on Wednesday.
"I am not surprised by LCH's decision, they tried to do this last year. Time will tell what the effect is on ECX," said Eckert. He added this would not affect the carbon markets.
Intercontinental Exchange provides the trading platform for ECX.
(Reporting by Chris Wills and Michael Szabo; Editing by Anthony Barker)
