News

• Ecotricity to return to the bond market

  28 October 2011

  UK renewable energy utility Ecotricity is preparing its second bond issue, following its oversubscribed Ecobond One, which it issued last December.

• Forest carbon fund gets $40m from US development finance house

  28 October 2011

  A fund that intends to earn credits from reducing deforestation has snagged $40 million from a US development finance institution.

• Sovereign bonds to be analysed for ecological risk

  27 October 2011

  A project to inform sovereign bond investors about the ecological risks they face was launched last week.

• European utility strikes African biomass deal

  27 October 2011

  Biomass producer Africa Renewables (AfriRen) has secured a five-year deal with Danish utility and trading company Verdo to supply thousands of tonnes of woodchips from old rubber trees in Ghana – doubling Africa's biomass exports, AfriRen claims.

• Alternative investment funds increasingly embracing ESG – US SIF

  27 October 2011

  The number of funds and the amount of money in alternative investments that incorporate environmental, social and governance (ESG) criteria has grown solidly this year in the US, according to a report by the US SIF Foundation.

• State Street green bond strategy 'cornerstone of broader platform'

  26 October 2011

  State Street Global Advisors' (SSgA) recently announced "high-quality green bond strategy" is expected to be the first part of a broader environmental fixed-income platform, its head of environmental, social and governance (ESG) investing told Environmental Finance.

• US wind power sector soaring but urgently needs certainty on tax breaks – AWEA

  26 October 2011

  The US wind power sector is soaring thanks in large part to a tax policy that makes it attractive to investors, but the uncertainty surrounding those very incentives is casting a cloud over the future, according to the American Wind Energy Association (AWEA).

• Investors welcome UK renewables review, but uncertainties linger

  25 October 2011

  Investors in renewable energy projects have welcomed a lack of "nasty surprises" in proposals to recalibrate the UK's Renewables Obligation support regime, but warn that lingering uncertainties still loom over the sector.

• Rio+20 conference 'in need of help'

  25 October 2011

  Preparations for next year's landmark UN Conference on Sustainable Development are under pressure in terms of both time and money, according to David Runnalls, outgoing president of the International Institute for Sustainable Development.

• Time to open up Equator Principles – BankTrack

  25 October 2011

  A banking industry initiative on social and environmental risks in project finance should become more transparent and expand its scope, according to campaigners.