A new strategic challenge
At the crossroads of public policies and financial markets, a new economic sector is developing : the carbon economy.
CDC Climat, a Caisse des Dépôts subsidiary, develops activities and services aimed at the players of this growing market. The objective is, on the one hand, that these economic players understand this new market, and on the other, that they intervene safely and in order to reconcile economic growth with clean development.
The international and European context
In order to fight against global warming, the international community has established, with the Kyoto Protocol, a policy to reduce the greenhouse gas emissions - mainly carbon - which are released into the atmosphere. The Signatory states have themselves objectives to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions.
An international emission allowance market has been created to facilitate the achievement of these objectives.
In the vanguard of this commitment, the Europena Union set its own rules in 2005. It directly obliges large industrial and energy companies to reduce their carbon emissions, whilst benefiting from a flexible mechanism, the European Union Emission Trading System.
The action of the Caisse des Dépôts Group
Working to the benefit of these public policies, Caisse des Dépôts, via its CDC CDC Climat subsidiary, promotes the development of carbon markets.
CDC Climat offers services which make the transactions, the possession and the account-keeping of these carbon assets secure. As a reliable third party, it manages the carbon registries. It invests in carbon funds which finance carbon emission-reducing projects and which enable companies to achieve their compliancy objectives. It supports, as a shareholder, the growth of market operators, such as Sagacarbon and BlueNext.
Its center of expertise and research into the climate change economy directs its work in three fields: carbon emission-reducing projects, emission quotas and carbon markets, territories and adaptation to climate change. CDC Climat Research publications are edited with the support of Caisse des Dépôts.
