UC San Diego begins trading greenhouse gas credits on Chicago Climat...( The University of California San Die...)

The University of California, San Diego has become the first campus on the West Coast to join the Chicago Climate Exchange (CCX), North Americas only voluntary, legally binding trading system to reduce emissions of greenhouse gases. UC San Diego is only the seventh university in the nation to join the climate exchange.

Joining the CCX is part of UC San Diegos aggressive program to conserve energy and reduce greenhouse gases (GHG). Trading in GHG contracts may become mandatory for large institutions in North America, as it already is in the European Union. By becoming the first West Coast university to begin GHG trading, UC San Diego gets a head start in what is becoming an important global sustainability mechanism.

Because weve become much more energy efficient and generate most of our own power, our campus can now sell surplus greenhouse gas credits on an open market, said Steven Relyea, UC San Diego Vice Chancellor for Business Affairs. This not only shows our commitment to green practices and reducing our carbon footprint, but also our commitment to employing innovative, leading-edge technology. In the future, many major institutions and corporations may be involved in climate exchange trading. As a major research university with a legacy of identifying the problems of climate change, we feel we need to be a leader in identifying solutions.

The university entered into a commitment with the Chicago Climate Exchange to reduce GHG emissions to baseline levels through 2010. UC San Diegos co-generation facility, one of the largest and most efficient university-owned co-generation plants in California, should allow the campus to cut emissions beyond the baseline level, and then trade the excess on the CCXs open market. The commodity traded at the CCX is a contract that represents the equivalent of 100 metric tons of CO2.

The CCX is whats known as a cap-and-trade emission trading system, because it mandates an emissions limit or
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