Emissions bourse operator Carbon Trade Exchange will on Sep. 28 launch its spot market for RGGI permits, it said on Friday, marking the first cleared, physically-settled spot bourse for a mandatory US carbon market.

The exchange, announced earlier this year, will be linked to the Wells Fargo cash clearing system, interfacing with the RGGI CO2 Allowance Tracking System (COATS), CTX said in a statement.

CTX can facilitate electronic trading through its secure, web-based platform or the clearing of over-the-counter (OTC) trades from the brokered market, it added.

“Market participants need a transparent and low-cost solution in order to effectively mitigate risk and optimize physical inventories in environmental commodities. Now, they can efficiently transact in an automated and anonymous manner via the CTX Market,” said Dan Scarbrough, president of CTX USA.

RGGI is an emissions trading scheme covering the power sector in nine north-eastern US states.

Its permits are currently mainly traded as futures on exchange platforms ICE and CME.

RGGI’s regulators are due to later today publish the results of the programme’s latest permit auction.

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