News

• Prime Capital launches €600m renewables investment company

  11 June 2012

  German asset manager Prime Capital is hoping to raise €600 million ($750 million) of debt to invest into renewable energy projects in Europe through its new renewables unit.

• HSBC makes $100m water, sanitation donation

  11 June 2012

  HSBC has unveiled a five-year, $100 million partnership with three NGOs to help address the "global water challenge", as the bank publishes a report assessing the future of the planet's 10 most populated river basins.

• Cities await climate finance from development banks

  08 June 2012

  Cities are still largely financing climate change initiatives from their own funds, according to a report from the Carbon Disclosure Project (CDP), with multilateral development banks providing less than 1% of funds.

• First international standard on biodiversity offsets launched

  08 June 2012

  The Business and Biodiversity Offsets Programme (BBOP) has published what it says is the first international standard on biodiversity offsets.

• Renewables could access $6bn of financing with MLPs, says study

  07 June 2012

  Allowing the US renewable energy industry to tap into master limited partnerships (MLP) could provide up to $6 billion in financing for new projects, according to a new study.

• Wind energy is 'good business' for banks – BayernLB

  07 June 2012

  The banking sector sees the wind energy industry as good business, but should perhaps express its support for the industry more forcefully, according to one banker.

• UN chief 'cautiously optimistic' on Rio+20 agreement

  06 June 2012

  Difficult negotiations in the run up to the UN's sustainable development summit are not unusual, said UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, who is "cautiously optimistic" of agreement being reached in Rio de Janeiro later this month.

• Five companies partner on plant-based plastic

  06 June 2012

  Coca-Cola, Ford, Heinz, Nike and Procter & Gamble have announced a partnership to develop and use 100% plant-based plastic in their products.

• US wind industry eyes alternative markets

  06 June 2012

  US wind turbine manufacturers are looking to other North and South American markets, to protect them if Congress fails to extend the production tax credit (PTC) for wind.

• Flexibility on pollution controls could save utilities $100bn – EPRI

  06 June 2012

  The US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) could save the electric utility industry about $100 billion by giving utilities flexibility in installing new pollution control technologies to comply with its current and pending regulations, according to the Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI).