News

• NOx cap-and-trade scheme brings down emissions

  01 October 2006

  Nitrous oxides (NOx) emissions in the eastern US fell 11% in 2005 compared with 2004, according to the Environmental Protection Agency, in its latest report on the NOx Budget Trading Program.

• US EPA 'simplifies' New Source Review

  01 October 2006

  The US Environmental Protection Agency has proposed changes that it says will simplify the New Source Review (NSR) programme for power and industrial plants.

• Investors to pour $80 billion into ethanol by 2021

  01 October 2006

  Investment in ethanol plants will top $80 billion over the next 15 years, according to a report by the McIlvaine Company.

• California bill could spawn giant REC market

  01 October 2006

  The California Legislature has passed a bill requiring 20% of electricity to come from renewables by 2011, and allowing trading of renewable energy certificates (RECs) to help achieve that goal.

• ANZ in the dock over logging

  01 October 2006

  Acoalition of non-governmental organisations, including the Australian Conservation Foundation (ACF), has lodged a complaint with the OECD over Australian bank ANZ's involvement with a major logging company's operations in Papua New Guinea (PNG).

• EU carbon prices fall, as uncertainty lingers

  01 October 2006

  Prices of EU carbon dioxide allowances (EUAs) fell in mid-September, with some market participants arguing that the EU Emissions Trading Scheme market could be beginning its long-anticipated trend towards zero. Meanwhile, other traders say that the delayed submission of member states' national allocation plans – setting emissions targets for Phase II of the EU ETS, from 2008, is harming the market. On 21 September, the European Climate Exchange's December 2006 EUA contract closed at €13.55 ($17.35)/t, down from €16.25 three days earlier.

• Abu Dhabi launches $250 million cleantech fund

  01 October 2006

  The government of Abu Dhabi has invested $100 million into a new clean technology fund in partnership with investment bank Credit Suisse and the Consensus Business Group, a UK-based property investment firm.

• Climate Change Capital on track for $1 billion carbon fund

  01 October 2006

  Climate Change Capital (CCC) is expecting to top $1 billion for its second carbon fund – making the London-based boutique merchant bank the world's biggest private sector carbon asset manager. CCC had reached $830 million by its first close on 11 September, taking just three months to raise the money, which came from Dutch pension funds ABP and PGGM, UK-based energy company Centrica and a fourth unnamed investor, described as a "global emerging markets banking group".

• CDP response plateaus, but widens

  01 October 2006

  Roughly the same number of the world's 500 largest companies responded to the Carbon Disclosure Project (CDP) this year as last, the CDP reported last month*.

• Nomura on the look-out for cleantech investments

  01 October 2006

  Japanese financial giant Nomura has set up a new energy and clean technology private equity business, to focus on late-stage venture capital (VC) investing. The company has hired Russell Pullan from the UK's Carbon Trust to head the team (see Environmental Finance, July–August 2006, page 16).