London, Paris, 11 January 2010

Citi, the global financial services company, and BlueNext, the environmental trading exchange, announced today that they held the first ERU* auction last Friday, auctioning 400kt at a clearing price of 11.21 Euros per tonne. The spot CER price at the time was 11.40 Euros per tonne.

Demand was reasonably high as the auction was 4.78 times over-subscribed.

Serge Harry, CEO of BlueNext, said, "we are very pleased that Citi and Bluenext hosted the first ever ERU auction. The amount auctioned represents almost ten percent of all ERUs issued at present - so this is a material moment. We of course look forward to hosting other auctions like this in the future."

"Until this auction there has been little trading activity and almost no price transparency for ERUs. This auction is a step forward in providing the information necessary for both buyers and sellers to make the investments in the underlying Joint Implementation projects that will expand the supply of ERUs," said Garth Edward, head of emissions markets at Citi.

Ends --

* Emission Reduction Units (ERUs): A unit of emission reductions achieved through a Joint Implementation project. This unit is equal to one metric ton of carbon dioxide equivalent.