Brazil’s derivatives exchange is joining with the Brazilian government to create the developing world’s first market for greenhouse-gas-reduction credits. The Brazilian Emissions Reduction Market (MBRE), announced in December and slated to open by midyear, is a joint effort by the government’s Ministry of Development, Industry and Foreign Trade and Brazil’s derivatives exchange—the Mercantile and Futures Exchange (BM&F). The BM&F, one of the world’s ten largest derivatives exchanges, hosts trading of US$20 billion daily in futures and options contracts. The MBRE will facilitate trading of emissions-reduction contracts under the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM), a provision of the Kyoto Protocol climate-change agreement. The CDM allows developed-nation governments and companies to obtain credits towards their Kyoto greenhouse-gas emissions... [Log in to read more]