In the absence of regulatory intervention, voluntary initiatives to measure and verify fugitive and other upstream emissions from natural gas shipments continue to gain ground. Environmental commodity marketplace Xpansiv, for example, issues and provides a platform for trading Methane Performance Certificates (MPCs), which are generated when natural gas is produced with an emissions intensity below a predefined threshold value. MPCs are traded on the spot market with activity tracked by commodity price reporting agencies, allowing producers to sell the certificates independently from the physical natural gas they produce.

ESG commodities marketplace Xpansiv’s CBL platform will debut a second standardised voluntary emissions reduction (VER) contract in January that aligns with initial principles recommended by the Taskforce on Scaling Voluntary Carbon Markets (TSVCM), the company said this week. Xpansiv announced this fall it will launch a spot contract – now dubbed the Core GEO (C-GEO) – based on the Core Carbon Principles (CCPs) set out by the Integrity Council for Voluntary Carbon Markets (IC-VCM), the newly formed governance body for the private sector-led TSVCM.

Speaking to Quantum, a market source involved in the market said voluntary carbon offsets still trade heavily OTC, but that a growing number of companies are looking at standardised contracts that require less review time.

“CBL now has a path to offer more specific contracts to the market that are anchored in benchmark C-GEO and N-GEO contracts. Like every other major commodity market, this will help participants trade more niche markets or put on a more specific hedge, while utilizing the liquidity of a benchmark contract,” said CBL’s new head of carbon market development Russell Karas.

“The road to standardizing the voluntary emissions market has been bumpy and circuitous, yet we stand on the verge of a transition to a more transparent and open global emissions market.”

​The C-GEO contracts are set to complement the nature-based CBL ‘s standardized contract, the N-GEO, which was launched in March 2021.​ ​”C-GEO 2 is a technology-based benchmark contract that complements the nature-based N-GEO benchmark,” said Russel Karas.​ ​”Not only can these products serve as a price discovery and risk management tool for qualifying credits, but they can also be used to anchor other basis/spread markets.​”​

At the same time, he said, the C-GEO 1 contract will offer a price discovery tool for older vintages, which are still actively traded and popular with many end-users.​ ​For the time being, Karas said, the C-GEO spot contract will only reflect Verra-certified credits, similarly to the N-GEO. “Market participants favored a streamlined, single-registry approach for the new C-GEO contracts, similar to the one used with the N-GEO contract launched in April​.”

IATA announced a further step in its program to help airlines with their environmental obligations, welcoming Qatar Airways as the first airline to make a trade using the IATA Clearing House (ICH) on the Aviation Carbon Exchange (ACE), a platform for trading carbon credits powered by Xpansiv market CBL.

The ACE is a platform that serves as a centralized marketplace for emission units eligible for the carbon offset and reduction scheme for international aviation (CORSIA) so airlines can meet their mandatory and voluntary offset commitments. Since it was launched in November 2019, the ACE has provided airlines with a secure access to real-time carbon offset data, with full price transparency.  We’ve now completed the technical integration of the ICH settlement functionality with the ACE which is a significant milestone to make financial carbon offset transactions seamless, safe and timely for years to come.

German gas utility Uniper fronted a certified natural gas transaction with Canadian producer Vermilion Energy and Rockpoint Gas Storage Canada. Vermilion Energy earned EO100™ certification from Equitable Origin—the certificates will be uploaded to Xpansiv’s DF Registry, which provides production accounting and traceability to ensure integrity and auditability of the certified gas transaction.