Dow Jones launches new carbon credit indices

Dow Jones has become the latest index provider to break into the burgeoning carbon market, teaming up with the Chicago Climate Exchange to launch two new indices for tracking the performance of carbon credits.

Unveiled last week, the Dow Jones/CCX European Carbon Index and Dow Jones/CCX Certified Emissions Reductions (CER) Index will respectively track the performance of EUA credits within the European emissions trading scheme and CERs issued through the UN's Clean Development Mechanism (CDM).

Michael A Petronella, president of Dow Jones Indexes, said the indices would provide participants in the carbon market with "price gauges to assess their exposure to this growing asset class", allowing them to measure how their portfolio of carbon credits is performing against the rest of the market.

He also hinted that the company was likely to introduce further carbon indices as the market matures, explaining that "we hope to expand our offerings for emissions-themed benchmarks in the future".

Dow Jones is the latest in a line of index operators to launch services for the carbon market.

Late last year, Barclays Capital launched a similar index for tracking the performance of CERs and EUAs, while Nasdaq operates a number of carbon indices and UBS offers a Greenhouse Index tracking carbon prices and temperature rises.