CBL Launches Core Global Emissions Benchmarks

CBL Launches Core Global Emissions Benchmarks to Further Scale the Voluntary Carbon Market

NEW YORK, SAN FRANCISCO, SYDNEY – 6 January 2021 — Xpansiv, the global marketplace for ESG commodities, today announced first trades of the Core Global Emissions Offset (C-GEO) contracts on Xpansiv market CBL, the world’s largest exchange for trading carbon credits, RECs, water, and Digital Fuels. First-day transactions totaled 127,207 mtCO2e (tons).

A total of 13 different companies traded the new contracts including Chevron USA Inc., Carbon Growth Partners, EKI Energy Services Ltd., Fathom Energy LLC, Mercuria Energy America, LLC, Radicle Group Inc., and Viridios Capital.

The C-GEO-2 contract traded a total of 117,207 credits in 21 transactions with prices ranging from $6.80 to $7.00. The C-GEO-1 contract saw first-day volume of 10,000 tons priced at $6.30.

“Team EKIESL congratulates Xpansiv for the phenomenal first trades of the C-GEO, which is a remarkable innovation for the carbon markets,” said Manish Dabkara, CEO & CMD, EKI Energy Services Ltd. “The state-of-the-art platform is a great enabler for global companies like us as we continue our stride toward making the planet greener with our strategic and sustainable solutions.”

CBL’s new standardized C-GEO-2 spot contract provides a benchmark that covers energy, renewables, and other technology-based offsets credits. CBL’s existing VCM benchmark instruments include the Global Emissions Offset (GEO®) and Nature-Based Global Emissions Offset (N-GEO), and the C-GEO aligns with the Core Carbon Principles set out by the Integrity Council for Voluntary Carbon Markets.

The pool of C-GEO-2-eligible credits is estimated at more than 100 million—considerably larger than GEO and N-GEO supplies. The contract criteria incorporate a rolling vintage schedule, with the oldest credits becoming ineligible when a new eligible vintage is added. This innovative mechanism will enable firms to use the C-GEO 2 to set pricing for long-term contracts that can be settled through CBL upon expiry, providing perpetual utility for the benchmark.

“The GEO and N-GEO have been a tremendous success in enabling greater market transparency, price discovery, liquidity formation, and risk transference, proving the benefits of standardized benchmarks in voluntary carbon,” said Xpansiv Chief Commercial Officer Ben Stuart. “The C-GEO contracts are the latest evolution of our product design to enable markets to more effectively scale to meet critical net-zero goals.”

A separate, trailing C-GEO-1 contract was also launched to accommodate older credits, including those that will roll off the C-GEO-2 as the vintage range advances. This contract enables market participants to trade older-vintage credits and provides price discovery and other benefits for these vintages. An estimated pool of 57 million credits is deliverable into the new instrument.

About Xpansiv
Xpansiv is the global marketplace 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 largest spot exchange for ESG commodities, including carbon, renewable energy certificates, and Digital Natural Gas®H2OX, the leading spot exchange for water; XSignals, which provides end-of-day and historical market data; and EMA, the leading multi-registry portfolio management system for all ESG-inclusive commodities. Xpansiv is the digital nexus where ESG and price signals merge. Xpansiv.com

PR Contact: Peter Burton, Xpansiv Communications Director—pr@xpansiv.com