New Horizon Energy said the bank will operate along the same lines as a financial institution - creating, trading and lending carbon credits - and will form an important part of its plans to generate energy at renewable energy parks to be build at sites around Australia.

New Horizon said it will create credits by requiring each of its projects to adhere to acceptable credit creation 'protocols'. The company added these will be accounted using internationally recognised standards to determine the exact number of credits available to be sold or traded.

"New Horizon will act as a clearing house for straight buying and selling of both Kyoto compliant and Kyoto non-compliant carbon credits but will also generate income from arbitrage and margin lending in credits to satisfy corporate activity," said New Horizon executive director, Antonio Gelonesi.