Carbon Trade Exchange adds new leadership: UpdateOREANDA-NEWS. July 13, 2015. Carbon Trade Exchange (CTX) has added two former Intercontinental Exchange (ICE) executives to its leadership to help expand the Australian firm's North American presence.

Michael MacGregor takes the role of CTX Group chief strategy officer and Daniel Scarbrough will serve as president of CTX USA. Both men will also hold positions on the CTX board of directors. CTX USA CEO Nathan Rockliff retains his position but will take on a more strategic role in North America and abroad.

Scarbrough and MacGregor helped found the Chicago Climate Futures Exchange, which ICE purchased in July 2010. At ICE, they helped design and launch a number of futures and options contracts across various environmental markets.

CTX entered the North American carbon markets last year and operates spot platforms for voluntary carbon, including products from the Climate Action Reserve, American Carbon Registry, Gold Standard and Verified Carbon Standard. In May, the company launched a spot exchange for trading Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI) CO2 allowances. RGGI is a CO2 cap-and-trade program to reduce power sector emissions in nine northeastern US states. It also announced plans to launch a similar exchange for the California Carbon Allowance market, once it is approved by the state Air Resources Board.

CTX intends to look at expanding to "all relevant US compliance markets that exist today," MacGregor said.

The RGGI exchange will facilitate electronic trading by parties with accounts in the CO2 program's allowance tracking system, known as COATS. Wells Fargo bank will handle financial clearance of transactions.

CTX anticipates an increased role for spot trading in the coming years, as the RGGI secondary market itself has grown substantially in the past couple years. The nine-state program could get new members as states look for ways to meet federal greenhouse gas regulations for the power sector that will be finalized this summer.

"The need for efficient, liquid and transparent environmental markets in the US is growing as compliance programs develop and mature," Rockliff said.