The international market for carbon products has emerged as a consequence of the United Nations (UN) Kyoto protocol which was signed in 1997 and applied in February 2005.

According to the protocol's rules, the industrialized countries are obliged to reduce their emissions of greenhouse gases. This is attempted to be done with the most financially efficient way, in order not the global economy to be burdened.

Thus, the Kyoto Protocol includes three flexible mechanisms:

• The International Emissions Trading (IET)
  • Ability, between the industrialized countries, to trade carbon emissions
  • Trading unit: AAU - Assigned  Amount Unit
• The Clean Development Mechanism (CDM)
  • Projects taken on by industrialized countries with the aim to reduce emissions in developing countries
  • Trading unit: CER - Certified Emission Reduction
• The Joint Implementation (JI)
  • Projects taken on by industrialized countries with the aim to reduce emissions in other industrialized countries
  • Trading unit: ERU - Emission Reduction Unit

The first mechanism allows emissions trading between the interested parties, i.e. states and bound plants, whereas the following two are based on project plans.

The Greek carbon market was launched in the Athens Exchange in the middle of 2011 when the primary auctioning of EUAs started, with the aim, in a further phase, to create a secondary market, as well as the listing for trading of other carbon products (CERs, ERUs), or their derivatives, as these are referred above.