Emissions trading market in pollution-licenses is more widely applicable than the market in emission-licenses. The international community began the long process towards building effective international and domestic measures to tackle GHG emissions (carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide, hydroflurocarbons, perfluorocarbons, sulphur hexafluoride) in response to the increasing assertions that global warming is happening due to man-made emissions and the uncertainty over its likely consequences. That process began in Rio in 1992, when 160 countries agreed the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). The UNFCCC is, as its title suggests, simply a framework; the necessary detail was left to be settled by the
Chicago Climate Exchange were intended to still be facilitated. Until July 2010, CCX was operated by the public company Climate Exchange PLC, which also owned the European Climate Exchange. Richard Sandor, creator of the Sustainable Performance Group, founded the exchange and has been a spokesman for it. The exchange traded in emissions of six gases: carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide, sulfur hexafluoride, perfluorocarbons, and hydrofluorocarbons. CCX started trading in October 2003, prior to the commencement of trading in the European Union through the ETS system. IntercontinentalExchange (), a leading operator of regulated global futures exchanges, clearing houses and over-the-counter (OTC) markets, announced in