AirCarbon Exchange (ACX) has been approved by Abu Dhabi Global Market to create the world’s first fully regulated carbon trading exchange and carbon clearing house.
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.
Expected to launch in 2022, ACX will be established as a Recognised Investment Exchange (RIE), enabling corporates to trade and finance carbon credits like conventional financial assets.
In addition, ACX aims to set up a regulated Recognised Clearing House (RCH) for the purposes of custodising, clearing and settling commodities and commodity derivatives.
ACX intends to initially use its distributed ledger technology within a traditional commodity trading construct to create tokenised carbon credits for spot trading. At a later stage, the firm plans to offer carbon credit futures as commodity derivatives for trading and to extend the platform to green energy contracts. All digital tokens will be custodised by the RCH and settled and cleared using the RCH’s blockchain smart contracts.
Ahmed Jasim Al Zaabi, chairman of ADGM says it is intended that the RCH will play a pivotal role in other markets and financial instruments, including virtual asset markets, adding vital market infrastructure to the digital trading ecosystem.