ISDA has published a new US Renewable Energy Certificate (REC) Annex, reflecting increased interest in trading products that help companies meet renewable energy and emissions-reduction targets as part of their environmental, social and governance (ESG) strategy.
The ISDA US REC Annex allows firms to buy and sell US RECs based on standardized product definitions and terms under the umbrella of the ISDA Master Agreement, enabling more efficient trading of these instruments.
RECs represent the environmental attributes of renewable energy generation, and are issued when one megawatt hour of electricity is generated by a renewable energy source. Buyers of RECs have the rights to the characteristics of renewable energy, allowing firms that may not be able to connect directly to a renewable electricity supply to support clean energy and meet their ESG goals.
“The financial sector will play a crucial role in the shift to a greener economy by mobilizing capital to invest in sustainability projects and infrastructure. RECs help achieve this by enabling organizations to support renewable electricity wherever they are based, even if local energy suppliers do not offer it directly. By publishing the ISDA US REC Annex, firms will be able to trade these certificates based on standardized terms, making the process simpler, more efficient and more cost-effective,” said Katherine Tew Darras, General Counsel, ISDA.
The ISDA US REC Annex is the latest in a suite of documents published by ISDA designed to support trading of emissions and certain types of environmental derivatives, including templates for US and EU emissions and temperature-related weather transactions. ISDA will continue to work with members to identify other ESG-related areas where standard terms, documents and definitions are necessary.
Law firm Jones Day worked with ISDA to draft the annex.
A short video on the ISDA US REC Annex is available here.
For Press Queries, Please Contact:
Nick Sawyer, ISDA London, +44 20 3808 9740, nsawyer@isda.org
Lauren Dobbs, ISDA New York, +1 212 901 6019, ldobbs@isda.org
Joel Clark, ISDA London, +44 20 3808 9760, jclark@isda.org
Christopher Faimali, ISDA London, +44 20 3808 9736, cfaimali@isda.org
Nikki Lu, ISDA Hong Kong, +852 2200 5901, nlu@isda.org
Documents (1) for ISDA Publishes US Renewable Energy Certificate Annex
Latest
US Treasury Repo Clearing Indicators July 2026
The ISDA-Actrix US Treasury Repo Market Clearing Indicators illustrate central clearing adoption in the US Treasury repo market. Sponsored cleared repo volumes are used as a proxy to monitor client participation in central clearing, a key objective of the Securities...
ISDA In Review – August 2026
A compendium of links to new documents, research papers, press releases and comment letters published by ISDA in August 2026.
Remove Bureaucracy from Cross-margin Approvals
Cross-margining programs play a critical role in financial markets. By ensuring margin requirements more closely reflect the actual risk of a portfolio of products, they reduce liquidity strain and improve market efficiency, both of which will become even more important...
Joint Response on CCP Resolution
On September 7, ISDA and FIA responded to a Bank of England (BOE) discussion paper on central counterparty (CCP) resolution. The associations support greater clarity on valuation capabilities prior to a crisis scenario and the boundary between recovery and resolution,...