CBL Announces First Trades of Nature-Based Global Emissions Offset

NEW YORK, SAN FRANCISCO, SYDNEY — Xpansiv, a global trading platform for ESG-inclusive commodities, today announced the first trades of the Nature-Based Global Emissions Offset™ (N-GEO) on Xpansiv market CBL. Participants supporting the contract include Hartree Partners, Everland, Allcot, Cargill International SA, ClimatePartner, Evolution Markets, Gazprom, Macquarie Group, U.S. Venture, and Viridios Capital. First day volume totaled 131,215 mtCO2e with prices ranging from $4.00 to $5.00.

Announced last month, the N-GEO™ contract is composed of eligible voluntary offsets from Agriculture, Forestry, and Other Land Use (AFOLU) projects with additional Climate, Community, and Biodiversity (CCB) accreditation. The CCB Standards can be applied to eligible land-management projects, promoting innovation from early-stage project design through development and implementation. Eligible projects will be carefully vetted under the CBL Standard Instruments sProgram rules, which also govern the Global Emissions Offset™ (GEO™) contract—the first in this series of standardized contracts developed by Xpansiv.

“We are excited about the role the N-GEO can play in helping scale the voluntary carbon market for nature-based projects by providing greater liquidity,” said Gerald Prolman, CEO of Everland LLC. “Corporate climate change leaders are looking for efficient ways to support high impact REDD+ projects that offer proven, measurable results, and the N-GEO will be a tool to help support such projects.”

The N-GEO provides a benchmark for nature-based emissions offsets, allowing participants to meet climate commitments while promoting the biodiversity of natural environments and supporting developing communities.

“After the successful market adoption of the GEO, we saw the N-GEO as the natural next step in the maturity of the international carbon market,” said Xpansiv Chief Commercial Officer Ben Stuart. “This groundbreaking contract will bring transparency and price certainty to an extremely important subset of the offset market, which will lead to further investment in projects that are leading the battle against climate change.”

The N-GEO was developed in response to strong market demand for nature-based solutions. The contract was created based on input from financial institutions, trading firms, project developers, industry associations, corporations, and carbon-standards organizations.

“We believe that alongside the bespoke over-the-counter market, there is a need for standardized benchmark contracts—like the N-GEO—to enable global carbon markets to scale to the magnitude necessary to meet the challenges of climate change,” said Ariel Perez, Head of Emissions, Hartree Partners. “As with the contract’s GEO spot and futures predecessors, we expect the N-GEO to enable new carbon-offset strategies, including basis trading, that have the potential to facilitate increased liquidity, resulting in more capital being committed to nature-based offset projects.”

The N-GEO offers access to capital that enables project developers around the world to expand their efforts to combat climate change. This announcement follows CME’s CBL GEO futures contract after the successful launch of the GEO spot contract last year.

About Xpansiv

Xpansiv is the global market for ESG-inclusive commodities. These Intelligent Commodities bring transparency and liquidity to markets, empowering participants to value energy, carbon, and water to meet the challenges of an information-rich, resource-constrained world. The company’s main business units include CBL, the leading spot exchange for ESG commodities, including carbon, renewable energy certificates, and Digital Natural Gas™; H2OX, the leading spot exchange for water in Australia; and XSignals, which provides end-of-day and historical market data. Xpansiv is the digital nexus where ESG and price signals merge. Xpansiv.com

US Contact: Rob Dalton, Xpansiv VP Communications – rdalton@xpansiv.com

AU Contact: Michael Mullane, Xpansiv PR Contact – michael.mullane@edelman.com