News

• UK introduces small-scale feed-in tariff

  01 March 2010

  UK householders, businesses and communities which install small-scale renewables will, from April, earn a feed-in tariff. Under the Clean Energy Cashback package, small-scale generators – with capacity under 5MW – will be paid the tariff, both for electricity they use themselves and electricity exported to the grid.

• EIB to raise climate lending to €20 billion

  01 March 2010

  The European Investment Bank hopes to lend at least €20 billion ($27 billion) to climate change initiatives this year, up from almost €17 billion in 2009.

• ADB to issue first-of-its-kind water bond

  01 March 2010

  The Asian Development Bank (ADB) is marketing a novel bond to finance investments in the water sector in its countries of operations. Its inaugural water bond – to be sold by Daiwa Securities to Japanese retail and institutional investors – will mark the first time that the ADB has issued a bond targeted at a specific sector, and is understood to be the first bond offering fixed income investors exposure to the water sector in the region.

• Shell bets big on biofuels

  01 March 2010

  Shell has announced a planned $12 billion joint venture (JV) with Brazilian ethanol giant Cosan, to combine some of their existing Brazilian assets.

• Funds digest

  01 March 2010

  Fortis eyeing new investors for $1.2bn China green fund; Hermes makes first close on UK clean-tech fund; CCC closes sustainable property fund at £69m

• People moves

  01 March 2010

  Two months after the disappointing UN climate talks in Copenhagen, YVO DE BOER is to leave his post as executive secretary of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change. De Boer will quit in July, two months ahead of his contract expiring, to join accountants KPMG as an advisor on climate and sustainability.

• 30+ carbon footprint guidelines baffle companies

  25 February 2010

  Companies are struggling to comprehend the thirty-odd number of guidelines for reporting their carbon footprints.

• Recession cuts RWE emissions by 13%

  25 February 2010

  Carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions from RWE dropped 13% last year, owing to a sizeable fall in electricity generation in Germany and the UK.

• Europe on course to meet 2020 renewables targets – EWEA

  18 February 2010

  The EU is on course to slightly exceed its target of sourcing 20% of its energy from renewables by 2020, according to the European Wind Energy Association (EWEA).

• CCC closes sustainable property fund at £69m

  11 February 2010

  Climate Change Capital (CCC), a low-carbon asset manager and adviser, closed its UK sustainable property fund this week at almost £69 million ($108 million).