Another green thing bites the dust.
Climatewire reports,
Investment bank Barclays Capital has closed its U.S. emissions trading business, including contracts for California and Northeast greenhouse gas allowances, sulfur dioxide and nitrous oxide, sources said yesterday.
The relatively small size of U.S. emissions markets prompted the move, rather than any specific policy development, a source with knowledge of the matter said. The rest of the bank’s activities in conventional energy trading and the European Union’s emissions market will continue.
Data weren’t available on how much trading they had been doing relative to other brokers, but the bank was one of the first to set up trades of carbon allowances and carbon offsets eligible for compliance under California’s cap-and-trade system, launching contracts for both in 2010. It started trading Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative allowances in 2009…