Essent Trading and Dutch bank ING today completed an emissions reductions purchase agreement with the Danish based company Core Carbon Group ApS.

Under the agreement, greenhouse gas emissions will be reduced in a project in Russia. The project is being developed by Core Carbon Group as a Joint Implementation project under the rules of the Kyoto Protocol, created by the United Nations to help address climate change. The Joint Implementation (“JI”) mechanism allows a country with a Kyoto Protocol emission reduction target to meet part of its target by carrying out a project to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in another country. Core Carbon Group will function as the emissions reduction project developer and investor for the project in Russia.

The resulting emissions reductions are referred to as Emissions Reductions Units (“ERUs”) under the rules of the Kyoto Protocol. Essent Trading will purchase a substantial part of these Emissions Reduction Units from Core Carbon Group, in a deal intermediated by the ING’s Emissions Products Desk in Amsterdam and the Derivative Solutions Group (DSG) in New York of ING’s Financial Markets.

William Shor, CEO, Core Carbon Group ApS, said, “We at CCG are pleased to have completed an innovative transaction with a leading financial institution like ING and a leading European energy company like Essent. The involvement of players of their caliber underlines the strength of demand for ERUs from Russian Federation that arise from projects that CCG develops.”

Nyame de Groot, Vice President Emissions at Essent Trading commented, “This deal is the start of a solid partnership with market leaders ING and Core Carbon Group. We are excited about the opportunity this project gives us to play an active role in the Russian emissions market and look forward to further developing our business in Russia. This emissions reduction project will contribute towards reducing the impact of global warming and climate change and is part of our commitment to support Kyoto.”

Peter van Eijndhoven, Vice President Emissions Products at ING, adds “ING is pleased to bring these two leading players in the global carbon market, Essent Trading and the Core Carbon Group, together in this unique transaction. It is made possible by the co-operation of ING’s Financial Markets team in New York and our Emissions Products team in Amsterdam.”