European Climate Exchange
The European Climate Exchange managed the product development and marketing for ECX Carbon Financial Instruments, listed and admitted for trading on the ICE Futures Europe electronic platform. For a time it was a subsidiary of the Chicago Climate Exchange but eventually became a sister company. Both companies were owned by Climate Exchange Plc a holding company listed on the London Stock Exchange's AIM market. While products are listed on the London Stock Exchange, the sales and marketing team was initially based in Amsterdam, the Netherlands under its first CEO, , before moving to London, UK in October 2007.
ECX financial products, now fully owned by ICE Futures, provide the most liquid, pan-European platform for carbon emissions trading, with its futures contract based on the underlying EU Allowances and Certified Emissions Allowances attracting over 80% of the exchange-traded volume in the European market. ECX contracts are standardised exchange-traded products and all trades are cleared by ICE Clear Europe.
More than 100 leading businesses, including global companies such as Barclays, BP, Newedge, E.ON UK, Endesa, Fortis, Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley and Shell have signed up for membership to trade ECX products. In addition, several hundred clients can access the market daily via banks and brokers in a process called 'order-routing' without having to be a member themselves.
ECX was a member of the Climate Exchange Plc group of companies, founded by Richard Sandor. Other member companies include the Chicago Climate Exchange and IFEX. Climate Exchange Plc is listed on AIM on the London Stock Exchange, and was bought in April 2010 by Intercontinental Exchange.
The last Chief Executive was Patrick Birley, son of archaeologist Robin Birley.Protests
On 1 April 2009, Camp for Climate Action protesters set up a campsite and farmers' market outside the European Climate Exchange in Hasilwood House in Bishopsgate, City of London, to protest against carbon trading as a "false solution" to the problem of climate change.
On 23 July 2010, European Climate Exchange's website was targeted by hacktivists operating under the name of decocidio #ϴ. The website showed a spoof homepage for around 22 hours in an effort to promote the contention that carbon trading is a false solution to the climate crisis.
