The 2013 Environmental Bonds Conference is being held in London on 25 April – and you can get a 25% discount here. The Conference organisers at Environmental Finance Magazine are offering readers of this blog 25% discount on registration fees.
You get a good line-up of blue-chip speakers, including Citi’s Michael Eckhart, Allianz’s Karsten Loeffler, EIB’s Jonathan Taylor & Chris Knowles, KfW’s Jochen Harnisch, Credit Agricole’s Tanguy Claquin and of course me, Sean Kidney.
To register go to: http://www.environmental-finance.com/events/view/63#register - and quote the Climate Bonds promo code: EB13/CBI/25. Let me know if you're going.
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The US Military, according to a Wall Street Journal report, is looking at bundling military renewable-power contracts into bonds, as part of an effort to make it cheaper to finance alternative energy.
The military is planning to spend billions on renewable energy during the next 10 years. WSJ quotes John Lushetsky, director of the U.S. Army's Energy Initiatives Task Force, as saying "We are very aware of the benefits of securitization from a general standpoint. Obviously that's been shown in other industries”. The Army has a goal of adding 1 GW of renewable-electricity capacity by 2025.
The Navy wants to add an equal amount of capacity. In October, it started buying power from its largest solar array so far—a 13.8 megawatt project at China Lake in California.
For the military, securitization potentially "expands the ability to raise more dollars to get more projects done sooner ".
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Bloomberg reported on Thursday that Obama is preparing to tell all federal agencies they have to consider the impact on global warming before approving major projects, from pipelines to highways. The directive would expand a Nixon-era law that was first intended to force agencies to assess the effect of projects on air, water and soil pollution. From the point of view of activists, not doing so may leave government agencies open to court action.
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Government action is moving ahead all over then place. France recently published a decree requiring shops and offices to turn their lights off one hour after all workers have left. All shop window displays now have to be turned off at 1 a.m. and can only be lit up again from 7 a.m. or an hour before opening time. The law is effective 1 July this year. They’re calling it “a measure of energy sobriety”. Nice term.
For some interesting discussion on this, see The Energy Collective blog.
