CARBON EXPO 2004: a complete success for the global emissions market and emissions trading

Positive results for the world’s first trade fair and conference for emissions trading aimed at reducing CO2

Trade fair and congress visitors from 58 countries in Cologne

Partners of CARBON EXPO agree cooperation up to 2008

The next CARBON EXPO will be held from May 11th to 13th, 2005

At the conclusion of the world’s first trade fair and congress for emissions trading and CO2 reduction, CARBON EXPO 2004 - Global Carbon Market Fair & Conference (9th - 11th June 2004) in Cologne, the organizers, the World Bank, the International Emissions Trading Association (IETA) and Koelnmesse, were very positive in their assessment of the event. “CARBON EXPO was a complete success for the global emissions market and trading,” declared Ken Newcombe (Senior Manager, World Bank’s Carbon Finance Business, CFB), Andrei Marcu (President of IETA) and Jochen Witt (President and CEO of Koelnmesse) on Friday. “Together we have successfully set up an international platform for the exchange between early buyers and sellers of emission rights, market leaders and service-providers, and have thus also succeeded in presenting the international emissions market in its entire complexity for the first time.” More than 700 trade fair and congress visitors from 58 countries, including more than 100 journalists, made use of the three-day fair with congress to prepare for the European Emissions Trading Scheme set to commence from January 2005. 50 exhibitors from a total of 20 countries, also including numerous companies, service-providers and government representatives from developing countries, participated at CARBON EXPO and expressed their great satisfaction with the results, discussions, meetings and international contacts achieved in Cologne.

CARBON EXPO 2004, which had been officially opened last Wednesday by Jochen Witt (President and Chief Executive Officer Koelnmesse), Warren Evans (Acting Director, Environment Department World Bank), David Hone (Vice Chairman IETA and Group Climate Change Advisor, Shell) and Prof. Dr. Ernst Ulrich von Weizs�cker (Member of the Bundestag and Chairman of the Parliamentary Committee on the Environment, Nature Conservation and Reactor Safety), to the applause of the representatives from the energy and environment sector, closed today as a successful trade fair.

„The overwhelming sense is that this has been an extraordinary exchange among the major players in the carbon market - industrial country buyers, developing country sellers and imtermediaries, private and public sectors -  coming together to demonstrate what they have to offer for reduction of greenhouse gas emissions“, stated Ken Newcombe, Senior Manager, World Bank’s Carbon Finance Business (CFB).

„We are humbled by how successful this has been.  Carbon Expo was not an intellectual exercise but actual transactions and business deals were discussed“, added Newcombe. 

Andrei Marcu, President of IETA, stated: “CARBON EXPO 2004 is a beginning that exceeded our expectations - especially in terms of enthusiasm and business spirit. It has opened new doors and shown new opportunities and demonstrated once more how innovative the business community can be. Business from developed and developing countries has come together as equal partners to find common opportunities and to help deal with a global climate protection.”

Exhibitors and trade visitors very satisfied
“In the current, still very early market development phase, it is especially significant for us to make use of the range of services provided by an international trade fair. The number of representatives from the international industry exceeded our expectations. We see CARBON EXPO primarily as an information and contact platform enabling us to personally get to know those market participants who will become key partners for us in what is still a young growth market”- this was the general assessment by the exhibitors and trade visitors.

Congress proved to be a genuine information exchange
The 55 workshops and seminars (hosted by 175 high profile speakers and experts) proved to be in great demand with the trade visitors and a large number of them participated. The events provided information about complex legal and technical contexts and the procedure connected with rights trading. In addition, numerous workshops showed how emissions can be reduced through the mechanisms of the Kyoto Protocol.

Signing of two Emission Reductions Purchase Agreements at CARBON EXPO 2004
At CARBON EXPO 2004, the Prototype Carbon Fund (PCF), a Public/Private Partnership of the World Bank, concluded two Emission Reductions Purchase Agreements (ERPA). On the one hand, an agreement on the Indocement (Indocement Tunggal Prakasa Tbk, Indonesia) Sustainable Cement Production project was concluded. It is a holding of Heidelberger Zement AG. A second agreement was signed today on the “Durban Landfill Gas to Energy Project” in South Africa.

Developing and industrial countries have become partners in climatic protection
Government representatives and organizations from 15 developing countries along with numerous companies and government representatives from industrial countries seized the opportunity at CARBON EXPO to jointly discuss emission-reduction projects and to set the course for their development. The general conclusion by the government representatives from the participating developing countries was that CARBON EXPO 2004 had further opened the door for them to the industrial countries, and that as a result, new emission-reduction products would develop. 

Partners of CARBON EXPO agree cooperation up to 2008
The organizers of CARBON EXPO - Global Carbon Market Fair & Conference (9th - 11th June 2004) - the World Bank, the International Emissions Trading Association and Koelnmesse, announced on 9th June 2004 in Cologne that CARBON EXPO will be held annually in Cologne until 2008. To this end, the responsible parties from the World Bank, the IETA and Koelnmesse ensured the future of this, the world’s first trade fair and conference for emissions trading aimed at reducing CO2 emissions to be held in Cologne. In 2005, CARBON EXPO will be held from May 11th to 13th.

“This agreement is a vote of confidence and an expression of great trust in our joint efforts,” said Jochen Witt (Koelnmesse). “Thanks to the agreement we now have a very promising long-term future in Cologne”, added Witt. 

“The extension of our partnership is an important step. It will enable us to continue offering energy-intensive industries, service-providers and developing nations an annual communications platform in the future,” remarked Ken Newcombe (The World Bank) and Andrei Marcu (IETA) on the continuation of the cooperation with Koelnmesse.

You can obtain more CARBON EXPO information and photo material at www.carbonexpo.com. Additional information on the World Bank’s carbon finance business is available online at http://www.carbonfinance.org, or at http://www.prototypecarbonfund.org. You will find further information on IETA at www.ieta.org.