ZURICH, Nov 2 (Reuters) - Switzerland's UBS (UBSN.VX: Quote,
Profile,
Research)
has launched an index of future contracts for carbon dioxide emissions traded
under the European Union's Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS), the bank said on
Thursday.
The index <WEMITRUS=UBSL> would be published in U.S. dollars, euros and
Swiss francs and would include two European trading platforms -- the European
climate Exchange and the Nordic Power Exchange.
Emission rights trading is a cornerstone of the Kyoto Protocol aiming to
reduce climate change by giving countries the right to send a fixed amount of
carbon into the air each year, forcing them to buy the rest on specially created
markets.
Europe set up the ETS last year, ahead of the implementation of the Kyoto
protocol in 2008.
The index is open to extension with emission trading schemes for other
greenhouse gases, UBS said.
A total of 165 nations have ratified the Kyoto protocol which aims to reduce
greenhouse gases emitted by developed countries to at least 5 percent below 1990
levels by 2008-12. Rising carbon dioxide levels in the earth's atmosphere are a
key cause of global warming.
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