Essent Trading supplies Carbon Credits to Austria

Geneva, 11 May 2009 - Essent Trading last week transferred the first of a series of Certified Emissions Reductions (CERs) to the Austrian government. The carbon credits, which are part of one package of ten projects, will be used by the Austrian government to support Austria's commitment under the Kyoto Protocol. The project bundle includes wind farms, small-scale biomass -fired plants, as well as combined heat and power plants using biomass as feedstock. The projects are located in China, Brazil and India.

Three out of the ten projects under the package are currently seeking Gold Standard status. The Gold Standard is a quality label for Clean Development Mechanism (CDM), Joint Implementation (JI) and voluntary offset projects using renewable energy and energy efficiency technologies. The Gold Standard for CDM projects was launched in 2003 and is endorsed by over 60 non-governmental organisations worldwide.

Essent Trading and Kommunalkredit Public Consulting signed an Emission Reduction Purchase Agreement for the sale and purchase of over 800,000 CERs from this renewable energy project bundle in March this year. Kommunalkredit Public Consulting was
appointed in 2003 by the Austrian Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry, Environment & Water Management to manage the Austrian JI/CDM Programme. There is a total purchasing volume of 45 million tons of emission reductions under this programme.

“We are happy to be able to purchase a large renewable energy project bundle from Essent Trading,” Alexandra Amerstorfer, Executive Director of the Austrian JI/CDM Programme said. “It is a well diversified portfolio in terms of renewable energy
technologies and host countries. Furthermore, we appreciate that the portfolio partly consists of Gold Standard projects.”

“We are excited about our collaboration with Kommunalkredit and the Austrian government” Nyame de Groot, Vice President of Emissions at Essent Trading commented. “Since 2005 we have focused on developing a renewable energy CERs portfolio to serve
our own compliance needs and those of our clients. We are also delighted to have found a partner that shares our views on supporting Gold Standard projects.”

About Essent Trading

Essent Trading, headquartered in Geneva, Switzerland, is a prestigious asset-backed merchant energy trading business with its roots in the Netherlands. Essent Trading is recognised as a market leader in energy trading in Europe and has been consistently voted a top-tier trading house by Energy Risk Magazine since 2004. Our parent company, Essent N.V. is the largest energy company in the Netherlands with approximately 11,000 employees, more than 5500 MW of diverse generation portfolio and over 2.6 million customers across the Netherlands, Belgium and Germany. Essent is ranked among Europe's leading companies in renewable and sustainable energy generation.
For more information, please visit www.essenttrading.com

About the Austrian JI/CDM Programme and Kommunalkredit Public Consulting (KPC)

The Austrian JI/CDM Programme aims to support the efforts of the Republic of Austria to meet its Kyoto targets by purchasing emission reductions from foreign climate protection projects. In 2003 Kommunalkredit Public Consulting was appointed as Manager of the Austrian JI/CDM Programme on behalf of the Austrian Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry, Environment & Water Management. The Programme focuses on the purchase of emission reduction credits from JI or CDM projects, investment in funds and facilities and the coverage of some JI or CDM project cycle costs. For more information, please visit www.ji-cdm-austria.at

Published: 11 May 2009