Many emissions registries have appeared during recent years, most as a short term fix. Few if any have been built to provide an electronic interface so that units can be moved from account to account using instructions produced from an external program (such as an exchange or clearing house system).

Markit Environmental Registry - Challenging the World

This lack of foresight means that workarounds have to be made to effect secure trading and settlement. These are workable in a low volume environment but cause increased costs and risks in an active secondary trading environment. Secondary trading matters in carbon as it creates the critical price transparency to enable behavioral changes and investments in new technologies and projects.

Many registries have no electronic external interface (all activity has to be carried out by humans through a web browser), no way of temporarily reserving units in an account for settlement purposes and no way of being able to be used for electronic DvP (Delivery versus Payment - the simultaneous, irrevocable exchange of cash and units) which is the norm for other commodity markets.

In the voluntary market, the need for quality registries is now well established: buyers want to lessen their risks, whether provenance, traceability, processing costs or settlement risk.

The Markit Environmental Registry provides a robust and resilient solution that addresses all these issues.