EU & UN to Link Carbon Credit Register in October

The European Commission and the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change agreed this week their carbon credit registries can be linked together in the first half of October, Thomson Financial reports.

Technical tests were successfully completed on Aug. 4 towards hooking up the EU’s Community Independent Transaction Log and the UN’s International Transaction Log– the two electronic accounting systems that keeps track of emission allowance or carbon credits of companies participating in the carbon market.

Once the two systems are linked, companies will be able to transfer certified emission reductions issued under the EU’s Clean Development Mechanism into their accounts in member state registries.

The carbon market could become a $2 trillion futures market and become the largest commodity market soon, according to Barton Chilton, commissioner of the Commodities Futures Trading Commission.