UAE Abu Dhabi Global Market (ADGM), financial center in Abu Dhabi and Blockchain AirCarbon Exchange (ACX) to create the world’s first fully regulated tokenized carbon trading exchange and carbon clearing house in UAE.
Pursuant to its recently released consultation paper, ADGM is set to become the first jurisdiction globally to regulate carbon credits and offsets as emission instruments, and to issue licenses for exchanges to operate both spot and derivative markets. The regulatory framework will allow corporates to trade and finance carbon credits like conventional financial assets, thus increasing participation and investment in global carbon reduction and offset programmes.
Expected to launch in 2022, ACX will be established as a Recognized Investment Exchange (RIE) and regulated by ADGM. As a regulated RIE, ACX aims to offer its market participants and customers efficient trading and a regulated transparent price discovery mechanism. In addition, ACX aims to set up a regulated Recognized Clearing House (RCH) – which will be known as ACX Clearing Corporation – for the purposes of custodizing, clearing and settling commodities and commodity derivatives.
Tokenized Carbon Exchange, ACX intends to initially use its distributed ledger technology ( DLT) Blockchain, within a traditional commodity trading construct to create tokenized carbon credits for spot trading. At a later stage, ACX plans to offer carbon credit futures as commodity derivatives for trading. All digital tokens will be custodized by the RCH, settled and cleared using the RCH’s blockchain smart contracts providing efficient settlement for all spot transactions.
It is intended that the RCH, once established and operating within ADGM, will play a pivotal role in other markets and financial instruments, including virtual asset markets, adding vital market infrastructure to the digital trading ecosystem. ACX intends to extend its trading platform offering to include clean energy products, in addition to carbon credits.
Last year, ACX was recognised as the Best tokenized Carbon Exchange in Environmental Finance’s prestigious Voluntary Carbon Market Rankings. In January, ACX partnered with the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) to promote carbon offsetting via UNFCCC Certified Emission Reductions (CERs) to allow clients representing 30 different countries to purchase and retire CERs for their carbon offsetting purposes. It will be the second exchange in the world, and the first in MENA, to list CERs held in the UNFCCC Clean Development Mechanism registry.