Systems and methods for trading emission reductions

• US 20050246190A1
• Filed: 01/14/2005
• Published: 11/03/2005
• Est. Priority Date: 07/20/2002
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Chicago Climate Exchange, Inc. (Intercontinental Exchange, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Chicago Climate Exchange, Inc. (Intercontinental Exchange, Inc.)
• Inventors: Walsh, Michael, Sandor, Richard, Kanakasabai, Murali
• Granted Patent: US 7,343,341 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 705/37
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/08 Auctions
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 40/04 Trading; Exchange, e.g. stocks, commodities, derivatives or currency exchange
• CPC Class Codes: Y02P 90/845 Inventory and reporting systems for greenhouse gases [GHG]
• CPC Class Codes: Y02P 90/90 Financial instruments for climate change mitigation, e.g. environmental taxes, subsidies or financing

Abstract

Systems and methods for facilitating trading of emission allowances and offsets among participants are described. In some embodiments, methods of facilitating such trading include establishing an emissions reduction schedule for certain participants based on emissions information provided by those participants and determining debits or credits for each participant in order to achieve the reduction schedule.

Claims

1. A method of facilitating trade of emission allowances and offsets among participants, which comprises:

establishing an emission reduction schedule for certain participants based on emissions information provided by those participants; and

determining debits or credits for each certain participant in order to achieve the reduction schedule.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the participants comprise voluntary greenhouse gas (GHG) emission reducers and environmental benefactors, the certain participants comprise the voluntary GHG emission reducers and the method further comprises conducting trades between the participants.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein the voluntary GHG emission reducers comprises industrial entities, the environmental benefactors comprise non-industrial entities, and the voluntary GHG emission reducers obtain at least some of their debits from the environmental benefactors.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein the non-industrial entities comprise (a) foresters, farmers, or others who prepare land for facilitating prevention of GHG emissions or for capturing and storing carbon or carbon dioxide, or (b) businesses including law firms, advertising agencies, banks, shopping centers or other businesses that are capable of exerting control over utility or transportation uses in order to reduce or conserve such uses to reduce GHG emissions caused by generation of power or electricity for providing such uses.

5. The method of claim 3, which further comprises providing credits to environmental benefactors who conduct activities that include planting trees;

keeping carbon released by plants in the soil;

reducing electricity consumption;

reducing business travel;

removing pollutants from streams, lakes, landfills, or other environmentally unfriendly areas;

purchasing environmentally friendly products;

or recycling, thus facilitating trading of such credits or allowances by the environmental benefactors with the voluntary GHG emission reducers.

6. A computer-based system for facilitating the trade of emission allowances and offsets among participants, which comprises:

means for establishing an emission reduction schedule for certain participants based on emissions information provided by those participants; and

means for determining debits or credits for each certain participant in order to achieve the reduction schedule.

7. The system of claim 6, wherein the participants comprise voluntary GHG emission reducers and environmental benefactors, the certain participants comprise the voluntary GHG emission reducers and the system further comprises (a) debits or credits representing emission reduction amounts based on the emissions information or activities of environmental benefactors, and (b) means for conducting trades of the debits or credits between the participants to enable each certain participant to achieve its reduction schedule.

8. A method for computing greenhouse gas (GHG) emission or emission reduction equivalents based on energy consumption or conservation activities, the method comprising:

providing activity data based on an energy consumption or conservation activity and associated with selectable activity units; and

applying a factor for converting the activity data to one of GHG emission or GHG emission reduction equivalents, in which the factor is based on the type of energy activity and the selected activity unit to compute the GHG emissions or emission reduction equivalents,

wherein the equivalents conform to standard values that facilitate trading between participants.

9. The method of claim 8, wherein the factor is based at least in part upon a location feature that is related to the geographic location of the energy activities and that is associated with selectable geographic locations.

10. The method of claim 8, wherein the participants include voluntary GHG emission reducers and environmental benefactors and the method further includes trading GHG emission or emission reduction equivalents between the participants so that the voluntary GHG emission reducers can reduce GHG emissions.

11. The method of claim 8, wherein the energy consumption or conservation source activities include at least one of:

power generation activities, transportation activities, and non-transportation activities, in which each transportation activity is related to an energy source consumed during transportation and is associated with selectable activity units that include one or more of;

units of transportation fuel consumed during transportation and units of distance traveled during transportation, optionally modified by fuel efficiency values, and in which each non-transportation energy activity is related to an energy source consumed independent of transportation and is associated with selectable activity units that include one or more of;

units of energy consumed during production of a product, units of a feedstock consumed during production of a product, units of a product produced, units of a product consumed, units of energy consumed during operation of an office facility, and units of office space occupied by an office facility.

12. The method of claim 8, further comprising:

providing a database of factors, in which each factor is associated with a type of energy activity, a geographic location, and an activity unit, the factors including emissions factors and conservation factors, in which each emission factor is associated with a type of energy source consumed and an activity unit, and in which each conservation factor is associated with an energy conservation activity, a geographic location, and an activity unit.

13. The method of claim 12, wherein the factor is determined by querying the database to determine whether it includes a factor that is associated with the type of energy activity and the selected activity unit.

14. A method for reducing pollution by creating a demand for a tradable GHG emission or emission reduction equivalent, the method comprising:

computing GHG emission equivalents for a first participant according to the method of claim 8;

and

enabling the first participant to acquire GHG emission reduction equivalents in an amount that is at least equivalent to the computed GHG emission equivalents so as to reduce pollution.

15. The method of claim 14, further comprising:

computing GHG emission reduction equivalents for a second participant by providing activity data based on an energy conservation activity and associated with selectable activity units; and

applying a factor for converting the activity data to the GHG emission reduction equivalents, in which the factor is based on the type of energy activity and the selected activity unit to compute the GHG emission reduction equivalents,

wherein the first participant is a voluntary GHG emission reducer and the second participant is an environmental benefactor and the method further includes trading GHG emission or emission reduction equivalents between the first and second participants so that the voluntary GHG emission reducer can reduce GHG emissions

16. A method of administering a market for trading greenhouse gas (GHG) emission or emission reduction equivalents, the method comprising:

at a server;

receiving a request from a participant to trade on the market;

based on the request, requesting the participant to provide information on amounts of GHG emission or emission reduction equivalents to be traded; and

registering the participant to trade the GHG emission or emission reduction equivalents on the market.

17. The method of claim 16, further comprising:

at the server;

receiving activity data from the participant based on an energy consumption or conservation activity and associated with selectable activity units; and

applying a factor for converting the activity data to one of GHG emission or GHG emission reduction equivalents, in which the factor is based on the type of energy activity and the selected activity unit to compute the GHG emissions or emission reduction equivalents to confirm whether the participant'"'"'s information on amounts of GHG emission or emission reduction equivalents to be traded is accurate.