Pacific Hydro and the Snowy Mountains Engineering Corporation have formed a carbon services joint venture called Perenia seeking to capture the market before Australia’s emissions trading scheme starts.
The business will on-sell credits created through the Clean Development Mechanism, an instrument under the Kyoto Protocol.
The credits will be available to trade in the Australian carbon trading scheme once it starts in 2010.
The move comes as the Government’s chief climate adviser, Ross Garnaut, calls for carbon credits to be auctioned. Professor Garnaut’s work will be a key force in the design of the emissions trading scheme.
Pacific Hydro chief executive Rob Grant said Perenia would be well placed to operate within the Australian scheme and to export credits overseas.
“It will allow corporates to source carbon credits from a pool of projects, which Perenia will manage,” he said.
“I am not sure we will get into the business of helping the organisations measure their carbon footprints, but once they have done that we’ll be a good place to call upon in order to purchase what will be properly accredited credits.
“We believe it is going to be a major global currency over the next decade or two so we believe it is a great way to get ourselves positioned and take advantage of that.”
Perenia is taking a head start on what will be Australia’s emissions trading scheme. By doing so they’ll be able to create themselves as the place to go to once everything gets started. It’s a good example of why it’s good to get a head start on a business before the demand kicks in full force.
