News

• Equator banks to update project finance standards by March 2012

  19 July 2011

  A new version of the voluntary Equator Principles, which set environmental and social standards for project finance, is to be published in March 2012.

• Investors, advisors form Low Carbon Bond Group

  19 July 2011

  A group of investors and advisors have come together to promote the use of bond markets to finance low-carbon projects.

• Green groups, right, unite against US green bank

  18 July 2011

  The US Senate's latest proposal for a green bank, also known as the Clean Energy Deployment Administration (CEDA), is drawing fire from both conservative and environmental organisations.

• Q2 clean energy investment up 27%

  14 July 2011

  The clean energy sector attracted $41.7 billion in new investment in the second quarter of 2011. Increased spending on solar thermal power plants and strong venture capital (VC) and private equity funding pushed investment 27% higher than the previous quarter, according to Bloomberg New Energy Finance (BNEF).

• Carbon cuts save UK firms £13m/year

  14 July 2011

  More than 30 companies including O2, BSkyB, Diageo and the UK's Royal Mail have collectively saved more than £13 million ($21 million) annually by cutting carbon emissions by 285,000 tonnes over two years.

• US government plays matchmaker on energy efficiency finance

  14 July 2011

  The US federal government has started playing matchmaker between capital-constrained commercial energy customers and companies willing to finance 100% of the upfront costs of efficiency projects.

• Swiss bank to help investors offset portfolio emissions

  14 July 2011

  Customers of Swiss bank Julius Bär will be able to calculate the carbon footprint of their equity portfolio and offset the emissions using carbon credits, through a service launched this week.

• Giant US solar projects may fail without loan guarantees – developers

  14 July 2011

  Solar developers could struggle to finance large-scale solar projects in the US without the federal government's loan guarantee programme.

• Industry, analysts react to UK electricity market reforms

  13 July 2011

  A selection of the key responses to the UK's electricity market reform (EMR) announced yesterday.

• UK sets out to reform electricity market, cut carbon

  12 July 2011

  The UK government today set out reforms to the electricity market, with the aim of driving the £200 billion ($319 billion) of investment needed to keep the lights on and meet climate targets.