INNOVATION

BGC Environmental Brokerage Services has a history of innovation in environmental finance.  We pioneered many of the tradable-instrument backed structures now used in the marketplace, either ourselves or with clients.  As our business has grown, our approach to bringing finance to environmental and new energy projects has broadened to encompass our current range of products, and we look forward to this aspect of our services deepening as our economies increasingly prioritise environmental responsibility.

We are known as innovators:

• We have a long line of firsts, from RTC trades, interstate ERC trades, EU trades, to CERs and structured products.  We have structured up-front payments to project developers, arranged credit swaps to enable risk-free pre-payments, and created mixed instruments to enhance uptake.
• In the 1990s, we brokered the biggest-ever voluntary greenhouse gas emission transaction from enhanced oil recovery.
• We developed the first and longest running continuous clean air auction to provide clients with 24 hour market information.
• We operate CER, ERC, RTC, and EA escrow accounts to safeguard buyers and sellers, and to remove risk from the transaction process.
• We have worked with the International Finance Corporation (IFC) to define and develop their project risk insurance tool.
• We operate bespoke auctions to maximize value from CER streams.
• We have created the world’s first full electronic auction to maximise the sale price of spot CERs.
• We are rolling out a number of sustainable carbon equity investment funds in conjunction with a major NGO (current funds under development are for Brazil, Africa and Indonesia).
• We are appointed as technical advisor to other funds under development

Closely tied to finance, is our approach to technology.  Caps on emissions create demand for new ways of doing things, and this demand requires technology – ‘clean-tech’, plus more traditional low-impact technologies introduced into new situations.  BGC is constantly looking at new ways of helping our clients to develop projects – which require technology – and to develop the technologies themselves.