Investment bank Morgan Stanley said on Thursday it planned to expand its carbon trading business through a $3 billion investment that includes projects related to reducing greenhouse gas emissions.
The move marks a significant expansion of the bank's existing carbon trading activities that it launched in 2004 within its commodities division.
The new investment, over five years, will put more capital behind the carbon trading business and also includes some direct investment in projects and initiatives related to emissions reduction, the bank said.
Other investment banks are involved in carbon emissions trading in a global carbon market that is fast developing in Europe, the United States and in emerging markets.
These markets, worth an estimated $10 billion in 2005, allow polluters to pay others to cut greenhouse gas emissions on their behalf to meet targets such as those set under the Kyoto Protocol.
Morgan Stanley's carbon trading business is headed by Simon Greenshields, who is global head of power, associated power fuels and carbon/emissions trading and structuring.
(Reuters, 26/10/06)