CHIMERA ARBITRAGE
Your best-practice oriented partner
Who we are
Chimera Arbitrage SA is a boutique advisory & trading firm based in Montreux, Switzerland and a global player in the energy, metals and carbon markets, sourcing, trading and supplying the full spectrum of products from the raw material to the finished pure or blended products and emissions.
Advisory
Our company offers corporate finance advice, with a focus on Frontier and Emerging markets including M&A, restructuring and valuation-oriented advisory services to Entrepreneurs, companies and investors.
From Entry to Exit
Whether you are considering a disposal or acquisition, our team will support you with financial advice from the beginning of the transaction through to its completion. Our team will use their industry experience and transactional expertise to guide you through the transaction process, often working with 3rd party specialist teams or bringing in experts such as tax and audit to ensure you have a successful outcome.
Metals
Chimera Arbitrage trades base and precious metals, including London Metal Exchange products, and provides risk management services to the global market.
Climate Change
Human induced climate change – which results from increased ‘greenhouse’ gases (GHGs) in the atmosphere – is the greatest social, economic and environmental threat of this century. It’s a problem mankind has caused mainly through our rapid exploitation of fossil fuels, and it’s a problem we need to solve with our collective intelligence, creativity, and humanity.
Climate change
Climate change is higher on the political and business agenda than ever before, with greater governmental and corporate emphasis on removing or reducing greenhouse gas emissions.
The Kyoto Protocol
The Kyoto Protocol of The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC - http://unfccc.int) is the foundation of most regulatory initiatives to control climate change. Ratified by 186 countries (September 2008), the Protocol is a legally binding treaty committing industrialized countries to reduce their collective greenhouse gas emissions to 5.4% below 1990 levels by 2012.
The Protocol provides three flexibility mechanisms which give the participating nations cost-effective means to achieve their targets. These are:
- Emissions trading. This enables participating countries with emissions targets to purchase carbon savings from one another in order to fulfill their Kyoto commitments.
- Joint implementation (JI). This allows developed countries to purchase carbon credits from GHG reduction projects implemented in another developed country or in a country with an economy in transition (the former communist countries of Eastern Europe). Emission reductions from JI projects are called Emission Reduction Units (ERUs).
- Clean Development Mechanism (CDM). This is another project-based transaction system enabling industrialized countries access to carbon reductions by financing carbon reduction projects in developing countries. Carbon savings from CDM projects are traded as Certified Emission Reductions (CERs).
Carbon Trading
The Rationale Behind Carbon Trading Free market systems work efficiently when the full cost of goods and services are known and factored into their price. Market systems fail when goods and services are not correctly priced. Until recently, our economic system has not been able to price the value of our stable climate because there has been no economic value for a unit of a Greenhouse Gas (GHG) emitted to the atmosphere. When units of pollution (e.g. tonnes of carbon dioxide emitted to the atmosphere) are translated into units of property (emission reduction units or carbon credits), carbon emissions trading can be used to more properly price the value of a stable climate within the free-market economy.
Over the longer term, progress towards a stable climate requires new low- and no-carbon technologies. We need to invest in the research required for their commercial development. And we need to create strong market demand or pull for these new, and sometimes more expensive technologies. To allow them take root, it must be more expensive to emit greenhouse gases than not. That is where carbon trading has a key role to play. By including the price of GHG emissions in our market system, we encourage better informed decisions about when to invest in new technologies that avoid the ‘costs of carbon’.
Carbon markets make it possible for organisations in one part of the world to exchange carbon credits with another in a different zone. Considering the nature of climate change – a global rather than local problem that is not affected by the physical location of the source of emissions - emissions trading is a powerful tool to tackle the challenge. Once markets take shape, emitters have the option to reduce emissions internally at source (for example by investing in energy efficiency measures, new technologies or processes), or to purchase emission reductions (carbon credits) from companies or countries that have undertaken similar activities if this is a cheaper option. In this way, the market is used to seek out the next most cost-effective emission reduction. Chimera Arbitrage sources carbon credits from around the globe and optimizes returns on emissions assets. We sell carbon directly to corporations, funds, government agencies and the public. By tailoring our service, we can ensure that acquiring carbon from us is always a clear, straightforward and reliable transaction - irrespective of the size or experience of the client working with us.
Our Markets
There are two markets for carbon emissions offsets – the well established compliance market, mandated by law, and the voluntary market, where demand is driven by corporations and individuals.
Our broad experience in both the compliance and voluntary markets allows us to structure complex transactions that meet the requirements of our clients and helps us to provide products, expertise and services related to their needs.
We offer:
- Proven experience in emissions trading, providing customers under the compliance scheme with the best trading channel in the European Union Allowance (EUA) market;
- Access to high quality compliance projects and voluntary projects sourced from a diverse portfolio;
- an experienced emissions desks in the industry, offering the intelligent application of financial know-how.
The Compliance Market
Measures have been implemented at the global, regional and national level to reduce CO2 emissions and try to mitigate the impact of climate change. Some of these measures, such as the European Union’s Emissions Trading Scheme (EU ETS), are mandated by law, resulting in the development and growth of the compliance market.
Our experience in the compliance market: Chimera Arbitrage is active in the emissions trading markets, offering a wide range of services:
- Sourcing and trading Certified Emissions Reductions (CERs) and Emissions Reductions Unites (ERUs) to optimize our client's compliance positions in the European Union Emissions Trading Scheme (EU ETS) and other regulated carbon markets.
- European Unions Allowance (EUA) – CER swaps. Companies included in the EU ETS can benefit from substituting part of their allocated EUAs for CERs, due to the positive price difference between these credits. The maximum amount of EUAs allowed to be substituted varies per country.
The EU Emission Trading Scheme (EU ETS)
The EU ETS was introduced in 2005 to allow European countries collectively to meet their commitments to cut CO2 emissions under the Kyoto Protocol. The EU ETS is a cap-and-trade system whereby governments set emission limits and allocate emission allowances, which can be traded between participants. A single EUA unit is essentially a tonne of C02 equivalents (t CO2e). Under the scheme, national governments submit a National Allocation Plan (NAP), which allocates emission allowances to power generating companies and other participating industrial sectors. In order to be compliant, companies need to exchange allowances against actual verified emissions.
To achieve compliance companies have the following options:
- reduce actual emissions through internal abatement;
- trade EUAs in the market by buying from companies with lower abatement costs or selling to companies with higher abatement costs;
- purchase international emissions credits generated by CDM and JI projects.
CDM and JI
CDM and JI are UN-regulated systems for project based emission reductions in countries that ratified the Kyoto Protocol. The CDM allows investors in CO2 abatement projects to accrue tradable emission credits, by financing clean technologies in developing countries. JI projects are similar to CDM projects, but are located in countries with a reduction target under the Kyoto Protocol.
Chimera Arbitrage has access to portfolios that includes projects in Brazil, Costa Rica, Russia, Vietnam, Papua New Guinea and India. We use the carbon credits generated by these projects for compliance of our clients businesses and to serve other compliance buyers in the EU.
The Voluntary Market
The voluntary market has expanded rapidly in recent years. As the name implies, there is no element of compulsion in the voluntary market. Its evolution has been shaped largely by increasing demand from companies, organisations and individuals seeking to mitigate the negative consequences of their own greenhouse gas emissions. What is voluntary emissions offsetting? The carbon dioxide emitted by organisations and individuals as part of their business or personal activities is known as a ‘carbon footprint.’ While a carbon footprint cannot generally be reduced to zero, it is possible to limit the impact of CO2 emissions by offsetting. This is the act of compensating greenhouse gas emissions by purchasing credits from offset projects, often from the developing world. Project standards and partners There are a number of industry approved standards and methodologies used in the market for emission reduction certification. At Essent Trading, we have selected three standards that meet a wide variety of purchasing rationales:
- Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) projects
CDM projects are developed under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) treaty and are hosted in developing countries. These projects generate Certified Emission Reductions (CERs).
CDM projects produce very transparent and credible offsets. In order to obtain the CDM status, projects are rigorously assessed by the host country, the UN and independent assessors accredited by the UN. - Gold Standard Foundation (GS) projects
Gold Standard provides a high quality carbon credit label and sets a clear and independent standard. We actively source projects which have been approved by the Gold Standard Foundation. These focus on additional social, economic and environmental benefits to the communities where those projects operate. - Voluntary Carbon Standard (VCS) projects
VCS projects are voluntary initiatives to reduce emissions both in developed and developing countries. These projects generate Voluntary Carbon Units (VCUs). VCS procedures are similar to the CDMs, but are less lengthy and costly and therefore appropriate for smaller offset projects. Many projects which are already operational, but have yet to obtain CDM registration, can claim VCUs.
The VCS standard also represents an effective way to promote emission reductions from technologies not yet formally certified under emission trading schemes. The VCU is the most traded carbon credit type in the world.
Contact Us
For any project you have interest in, please leave us a message and we’ll provide you with more details.