Q.1 ARE THERE ANY ADDITIONAL COSTS
Green Market Opportunities charge a £85 reservation fee when buying your first credits, this allows us to take your allotted amount out of our allocation, prepare all the necessary paperwork in advance of instructing the FSA regulated custodian to begin the NYSE APX account opening process. You do not pay for the account to be opened. Following that the only other cost is a brokerage fee of 1% success based on the profit you make plus £.0.05 transfer fee per credit.
Please note: that the Carbon Trade Exchange (CTX), charge 5% of the total trade value when selling on their electronic exchange.
(Fees subject to change)
Q.2 WHO HAS ACCESS TO MY APX ACCOUNT
You are the only person who has access to the account. For data protection all accounts opened on the NYSE APX, once your account is open, you will receive documentation confirming so, along with a print out of your holdings. At this point all our client accounts are made private so you will not appear on the public registry unless you specifically ask to do so.
Q.3 ARE THE PROJECTS MAKING A REAL DIFFERENCE
Absolutely, the projects not only have a very real impact on the environment but in many cases they positively affect the local communities where the projects are based. GMO always detail the social and economic benefits to local communities within our project documents.
Q.4 HOW DO I INVEST INTO CARBON CREDITS
Simply, speak to one of our highly trained Brokers on +44 (0) 20 3384 8680 or register for your free trading account via our GMOUK website. We are here to help you over the long term.
Q.5 PROJECT VERIFICATION & REGISTRATION
The role of verification is to inform the buyer what they are buying and whether it is real i.e. that the credit has been earned from a genuine emission reduction project; that has been implemented and verified according to a leading international standard and most importantly that the credit resides in the registry that has been appointed by that standards authority to issue and manage the credits earned from projects in accordance with those standards. A previous conflict of interest arose from the fact that verification auditors are currently chosen and paid by a project's developer.
There is this pressure on auditors to approve projects in order to preserve their business relationships with the developers. This compromises the auditors' independence and neutrality. To account for this, all projects are now validated by a third party verification auditor to approve and accept the project prior to the issuance of the carbon credit.
The three main registries for the voluntary markets are:
Caisse des Depots
Q.6 WHY PURCHASE
If you currently have exposure to stocks, bonds, or any other traditional assets and are currently seeking a much safer diversification to your asset portfolio, then purchasing carbon credits as an asset may be the solution for you. "Carbon Trading" is one of the fastest growing markets and industries today. A very recent quote from the Environment Audit Committee has called for the government to introduce a minimum carbon price of €100 per ton to bolster investment into these markets.
The price of allowances is determined by supply and demand as in any other market. Individuals can purchase carbon credits to not only hold for the inherent anticipated appreciation in price, which is being fueled by demand; but since GMO only procure and sell carbon credits that can be verified with the Verified Carbon Standard (VCS) and Voluntary Gold Standard (VGS) there is an opportunity to look to dispose of their holding to companies that are looking to reduce their own carbon footprint in the future, so companies such as these can reduce their own carbon footprint
For more information on “investing into carbon credits” visit our website Green Market Opportunities.
