Jan 26 (Reuters) - London-based carbon broker CarbonDesk Limited has shed staff in a bid to help it emerge from administration by the end of February, the firm's co-founder told Reuters on Thursday.

"The London headcount has been slashed. There are no full-time brokers and most are putting efforts into finding other places. No-one is now employed, they are self-employed," said Daniel Edelman, CarbonDesk's co-founder and director of new business development.

"All have been told if they book deals for us they will be paid," he added.

Edelman did not reveal how many staff were employed in the London office but headcount is thought to be small.

Parent company CarbonDesk Group Plc is active in spot, future and options trading in emissions markets. Its shares are listed on Plus, a UK-based stock and derivatives exchange , but the last trade was on Sept. 26, Reuters data shows.

Broking division CarbonDesk Limited was put into administration last September because it could no longer pay creditors, the group said in a statement early Thursday.

The unit was suspended from emissions exchange ICE Futures Europe this month.

Parent CarbonDesk Group said the carbon market over the last year has been "extremely disappointing and frustrating".

It cited the Japanese earthquake and tsunami in March as a cause of carbon price volatility with extremely low volume, which badly affected the brokerage's clients and forced some to halt trading on the market.

European Union and U.N. carbon prices spiked just after the tsunami, but have since fallen to record lows on oversupply and fears of economic slowdown.

As a result, the group reduced costs and the headcount to offset the lower income in the broking division, it said.

It was forced to close its Geneva office last year, which cost around 300,000 pounds ($467,600), it added.

The group posted a loss of 1,792,523 pounds for the period ended April 30, 2011, and its Financial Services Authority licence has been downgraded.

Edelman said administrators have proposed to creditors a date at the end of February for bringing the brokerage out of administration.

"It is up to creditors whether they accept that," Edelman said.

($1 = 0.6416 British pounds) (Reporting by Nina Chestney; editing by Keiron Henderson)