News

• GM, Exxon and Chevron make climate blacklist

  19 February 2009

  Nine US and Canadian companies have done such a poor job in evaluating and disclosing the impact of climate risk on their business operations that they earned a place on a 'Climate Watch List' created by investors.

• US stimulus package provides large boost for biomass energy but little for biofuels

  18 February 2009

  US biomass energy looks set to be a big beneficiary of the $787bn economic stimulus package signed this month by the US president Barack Obama but ethanol and biodiesel received limited support.

• US ditches mercury trading plans

  12 February 2009

  US plans for a cap-and-trade system to cut mercury emissions are likely to be abandoned in favour of regulation, after Barack Obama's administration decided to drop a key appeal.

• Evian and Volvic to become 'plastic neutral' in UK

  12 February 2009

  Danone Waters plans to make Evian and Volvic bottled water 'plastics-neutral' in the UK, through the use of recycled plastic.

• Renewables provisions survive US stimulus compromise

  12 February 2009

  After a night of intense negotiations, the US House of Representatives and Senate have reached a compromise on a $789 billion economic stimulus package that includes several provisions favourable to the renewable energy sector.

• Airlines call for inclusion in Copenhagen climate deal

  12 February 2009

  A coalition of four leading airlines have banded together to lobby for the sector's inclusion in a new climate deal, expected to be agreed in Copenhagen in December.

• Vattenfall unveils SEK5.6bn switch to biomass fuel

  11 February 2009

  Swedish utility Vattenfall is to spend SEK5.6bn ($670m) to convert two of its three Danish combined heat and power plants to run on biomass as well as coal, as part of a SEK82bn programme to reduce emissions in the Nordic region.

• CME to launch Australian weather contracts, quanto structures

  05 February 2009

  The Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME) is to list temperature-based weather contracts for the Australian cities of Melbourne, Sydney and Brisbane.

• Co-op Bank rejects £1 billion on ethical grounds

  05 February 2009

  The Co-operative Bank has turned down more than £1 billion ($1.5 billion) of "unethical" business since 1992, it announced this week, as it launched the fifth update of the standards organisations must meet to open accounts or receive loans and financing.

• Kellogg sets environmental targets in first CR report

  05 February 2009

  Cereal and convenience food giant Kellogg Company has published its first global corporate responsibility (CR) report, setting targets to reduce its environmental and social impacts.