News

• US power firms go on solar spree

  01 May 2008

  US power developers and utilities this month signed a series of solar deals worth billions of dollars, as the firms seek to supply their own customers with solar power and exploit global opportunities.

• New regulations to boost US wetlands market

  01 May 2008

  The size of the US wetland banking mitigation market is set to treble, following new regulations likely to transform the emerging ecobusiness. On 10 April, the US Army Corps of Engineers and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) jointly released regulations that promote wetland mitigation banking while pushing back its competitors.

• Ceres attacks Wall Street 'inconsistency' on climate change

  01 May 2008

  Mutual fund providers such as Morgan Stanley are "inconsistent" on climate change, voting against shareholder resolutions on global warming, even though they offer products and invest in the opportunities it poses, such as clean energy, according to a report by Ceres.

• Credit Suisse puts $300m into renewables

  01 May 2008

  Credit Suisse is to commit at least $300 million to make principal investments in renewable energy through private equity firm Hudson Clean Energy Partners.

• Dow Jones to market CCX indexes

  01 May 2008

  Dow Jones Indexes is to calculate, market and license indexes based upon European and US carbon, and US sulphur dioxide emissions indexes to be developed by the Chicago Climate Exchange (CCX).

• ADB rejects Bangladeshi coal project

  01 May 2008

  The Asian Development Bank (ADB) has pulled the controversial Phulbari coal project from its pipeline.

• Credit crunch hits clean energy financing

  01 May 2008

  New investment in clean energy fell sharply in the first quarter of 2008, according to figures from New Energy Finance, while mergers and acquisitions (M&A) activity jumped dramatically – indicating that contracting financial liquidity is making its effect felt. However, the London-based analysis company is holding to its 2012 investment forecasts, maintaining that the "fundamentals remain strong".

• EU emissions data helps drive allowance prices

  01 May 2008

  Carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions from installations in the EU Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS) rose 1% in 2007, catching most participants in the European emissions market by surprise, it emerged at the start of April. A decline in emissions had been widely expected, owing to a milder-than-usual winter last year, plentiful hydro reserves, cheaper gas prices in the summer (which would have encouraged more gas-burn in place of coal for power generation) and a slowing economy in the second half of the year.

• Investor to market Guyanese forest's ecosystem services

  01 May 2008

  Canopy Capital has signed a deal to market the ecosystem services provided by 371,000 hectares of rainforest in Guyana. The London-based private equity firm, established last year by UK charity the Global Canopy Programme (GCP), hopes the deal will lead to a proper value being placed on the 'utility' services provided by rainforests, such as sequestering and storing carbon, generating rainfall, storing water and providing biodiversity.

• IMO proposes ship emissions offset scheme, eyes CDM

  01 May 2008

  The International Maritime Organisation (IMO) is to consider using an emissions trading scheme (ETS) to control the greenhouse gases produced from shipping, as well as an offset scheme which would tap into the Kyoto Protocol's Clean Development Mechanism (CDM).