Another marriage in the carbon offset market was announced recently with the German energy giant RWE purchasing a 50% stake in the carbon emission reduction project consultancy Agrinergy PTE Ltd., with neither party willing to disclose the financial implications, CIG understands.
Agrinergy are a specialist firm dealing in the UN-backed Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) offset scheme, who offer support and consultancy services to developed global companies looking to purchase Certified Emission Reduction (CER) credits and emission reduction projects in developing economies eager to join the CDM.
A RWE spokesperson announced that under the terms of the deal Agrinergy's 20 member staff would work in partnership with RWE's own CDM-focused subsidiary RWE Power Climate Protection GmbH, CIG sources said.
"RWE is already one of the big players in the CDM market – operating 100 projects worldwide – but now we will combine Agrinergy's expertise with our own expertise and financial backing to develop more projects," she said, adding that the new alliance would assist the firm in meeting its goal of generating 90 million CER credits through CDM-approved projects during the 2008 to 2012 period.
CIG continues to see strong movement toward a global carbon offset market with more and more business taking the initiative ahead of international legislation which was hoped to come from the Copenhagen climate talks, but which now seems unlikely until mid 2010.
