The National Commodity and Derivatives Exchange (NCDEX), India's largest agri-trading platform, has announced the launch of the futures contract in certified emission reduction (CER), a type of carbon credit certificate futures contract. The contract will be launched on April 10 for delivery in December 2008. But, with a number of global events on the environment, especially the forthcoming meeting of global environment experts in Bangkok, the subsequent yearly contracts are likely to be launched within two months for delivery in December between 2009 to 2012. EMISSION REDEMPTION # NCDEX to launch of the futures contract in certified emission reduction (CER), a type of carbon credit certificate, for delivery in December 2008 # The trade size in each lot has been fixed at 500 CERs and a clientwise limit is fixed at 11,000 lots # The CER contract on NCDEX will help domestic carbon credit generators with better realisations as they sell CERs at 80 per cent discount on European trading platforms # At present, a CER is traded at around ,15.32 on European exchanges # After China, India is the largest supplier of CERs The tick size has been set at Rs 0.20 per CER. The trade in the Indian rupee is likely to reflect the price on foreign futures platforms, including Nordpool, the European Climate Exchange and NYMEX's Green Exchange. The trade size in each lot has been fixed at 500 CERs and a clientwise limit is fixed at 11,000 lots. The memberwise limit is set at 66,000 lots. The CER contract on NCDEX will benefit domestic carbon credit generators as they have been on the receiving end on the global front. Sometimes, they sell CERs at 80 per cent discount (of the prevailing price) on European trading platforms. As middlemen put extensive efforts to collect CERs from domestic sellers and look for buyers mainly in the European markets, they charge extensively for their initiatives. Now, with the trading starting domestically, domestic sellers would be able to trade at the price prevailing in the global market, said P H Ravikumar, managing director and chief executive, NCDEX. The bourse will ensure delivery when buyers and sellers declare their intentions to the exchange platform after adequate evaluation. "In the presently structured futures trading system, non-banking finance companies, fund houses, local outfits of global investment houses and local funds of global repute can trade on the exchange platform,' Narendra Rathore, vice-president (product group), said. After China, India is the largest supplier of CERs. India is expected to account for 14.69 per cent of the expected annual number of CERs from the registered projects under the clean development mechanism (CDM) of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) by 2012. At present, a CER is traded at around ,15.32 on European exchanges. Meanwhile, NCDEX Spot Exchange (NSEL) is set to begin spot trade in coffee, steel ingots, sugar and soybean by month-end.