Environmental markets
The atmosphere is the ultimate scarce resource. Economics and markets solve for scarcity through transparent price discovery valuing externalities to transfer risk and allocate capital and promote sustainable outcomes.
ICE has been a leader in environmental markets for nearly two decades. Today, our environmental markets span Europe and North America — the world’s most liquid environmental markets. Our range of products are integral to valuing externalities and balancing the world’s finite carbon budget to meet a 1.5°C pathway to limit climate change. This is the era of carbonomics.
Corporates subject to carbon cap and trade programs and renewable fuel standards use our markets to meet obligations and manage their risk in a cost-effective way. Market participants can deliver carbon allowances, carbon credits and renewable energy certificates into a range of registries in Europe and North America.
A growing number of corporates are signing up for voluntary commitments around the world. This means increasingly diverse stakeholders can use ICE’s markets to offset their carbon liability, invest in green attributes or benchmark their internal cost of carbon. Policy makers rely on price signals from environmental markets to gauge the effectiveness of their programs and ensure desired outcomes — such as driving investment in renewables and the use of less-carbon-intensive fuels. Investors can use the price signals from ICE markets and indices to help assess climate transition risk in their portfolios, and then access liquidity pools for managing risk and allocating capital to benefit from energy transition opportunities.
Carbon auctions
ICE GreenTrace
ICE GreenTrace™ is an environmental registry technology service which brings unparalleled financial market infrastructure to support the life-cycle of environmental instruments, including carbon credits, emission allowances and Energy Attribute Certificates (EACs).
The Fit for 55 package is a set of proposals to revise EU legislation to help cut net greenhouse gas emissions by 62% by 2030. For many companies, the proposals mean that they will have more carbon tonnes at risk - incentivizing them to seek abatement options that support a path to net zero emissions.
Assess sustainability risks and opportunities with data from the leading provider of environmental markets with access to global & voluntary carbon data, ICE’s sustainable finance data & indices, global renewables and fuels data, and more.
Related insights
ICE Alberta TIER Futures
ICE NGX introduced the first cleared futures on Alberta's Technology Innovation and Emissions Reduction (TIER) regulation. The new contracts let entities buy, sell, and hedge their exposure to the credits and the escalating Alberta TIER fund price. Learn more about the new contracts with our recent webinar replay.
Carbon markets unleashed
In this session, we explored the growth of carbon markets worldwide and the increasing role of government-mandated programs in driving this expansion. We delved into what these developments mean for various stakeholders, including businesses, policymakers, and environmental advocates.
Understanding nature based carbon removal projects with ACR
To bring price discovery and transparency to the carbon credit market, ICE plans to begin carbon credit auctions for GreenTrees, a global leader in reforestation. Ahead of our first carbon credit auction, we hosted a webinar about American Carbon Registry’s (ACR) approach, GreenTrees’ reforestation projects and the benefits carbon credit auctions provide.
The Move to Net Zero: Decarbonizing US Energy
In this session, senior leaders across U.S. natural gas utilities discuss how they are decarbonizing their operations to support a low carbon future.
ICE Alberta TIER Futures
ICE NGX introduced the first cleared futures on Alberta's Technology Innovation and Emissions Reduction (TIER) regulation. The new contracts let entities buy, sell, and hedge their exposure to the credits and the escalating Alberta TIER fund price. Learn more about the new contracts with our recent webinar replay.
Carbon markets unleashed
In this session, we explored the growth of carbon markets worldwide and the increasing role of government-mandated programs in driving this expansion. We delved into what these developments mean for various stakeholders, including businesses, policymakers, and environmental advocates.
Understanding nature based carbon removal projects with ACR
To bring price discovery and transparency to the carbon credit market, ICE plans to begin carbon credit auctions for GreenTrees, a global leader in reforestation. Ahead of our first carbon credit auction, we hosted a webinar about American Carbon Registry’s (ACR) approach, GreenTrees’ reforestation projects and the benefits carbon credit auctions provide.
The Move to Net Zero: Decarbonizing US Energy
In this session, senior leaders across U.S. natural gas utilities discuss how they are decarbonizing their operations to support a low carbon future.