Standard Bank London and EcoSecurities, the carbon trading adviser have agreed an exclusive cooperation agreement to provide carbon credits services to their governmental and corporate clients.

The cooperation agreement will focus on the structuring, monetising and in the future the trading of carbon credits arising from the implementation of the Clean Development Mechanism of the Kyoto Protocol. The Kyoto Protocol is a UN agreement which aims to reduce the emission of greenhouse gases that lead to global warming.  Standard Bank and EcoSecurities will also provide advisory services to governments and other entities on how best to implement aspects of the Kyoto Protocol in their own countries.  In liaison with the worldwide network of the Standard Bank group, Standard Bank and EcoSecurities will initially focus on opportunities in the African continent and Russia , as well as in certain Asian and Latin American countries.

Renewable energy from sources such as wind, hydro, solar, biomass, geothermal and fuel cells is a particularly good source of carbon credits. Standard Bank and EcoSecurities are already working together on such projects in countries as diverse as Brazil , Nicaragua , South Africa and Russia . Increasingly, buyers for carbon credits are corporates in developed countries which will in due course have to reduce emissions to pre-agreed levels. The market for trading in carbon credits is expected to increase in size considerably with the approach of the commitment period for the Kyoto Protocol, which begins in 2008.