28 November 2006

Climate Change: Climate Exchange May Get Boost from U.S. Elections, claims CCX Boss

Reuters/Planet Ark reports that Richard Sandor, founder of the Chicago Climate Exchange is confident, "The debate over global warming will likely move to center stage with the return of Democratic Party control in the US Congress, and that should boost trading on fledgling 'climate' markets."

"Clearly the wave at least in Washington is much more oriented toward cap-and-trade, market-based solutions to climate change," CCX founder Richard Sandor told Reuters on the sidelines of a Futures Industry Association meeting here.

Three key US senators, Barbara Boxer of California, Jeff Bingaman of New Mexico and Joseph Lieberman of Connecticut -- who are to lead powerful environmental committees in Congress -- wrote to President George W. Bush on Nov. 15 asking him to reconsider his long-held opposition to mandatory US caps on emissions of greenhouse gases (GHG) like carbon dioxide.

"The recent elections have signaled a need to change direction in many areas, including global warming," the senators wrote to Bush. "When the 110th Congress begins in January, we pledge to work to pass an effective system of mandatory limits on greenhouse gases."

Most scientists have linked greenhouse gases to global warming. Rising temperatures could increase storm intensities and melt glaciers, which would threaten low-lying nations with flooding.

Sandor, a pioneering economist credited with building the US financial futures market in the 1970s, founded the Chicago Climate Exchange three years ago.

Read the full story by Christine Stebbins: Chicago Climate Exchange

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