By Dinakar Sethuraman and Natalie Obiko Pearson
Investors are rushing to sell some United Nations emission credits before they become almost worthless in 2013, pushing prices to a record low.
With Europe set to stop recognizing credits for projects that destroy industrial gases known as hydrofluorocarbon-23 and nitrous oxide in little more than a year, holders are “racing to beat” the ban, according to Bloomberg New Energy Finance. A UN program that encourages reductions in the industrial gases awarded almost twice as many credits for them this year as in 2010, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. They account for about two-thirds of all so-called Certified Emission Reductions supplied by the UN-managed program.
