The Climate Bonds Initiative, with WWF and the Global Canopy Programme, today published the "Unlocking Forest Bonds" report of a high-level workshop on tropical forest finance. The report argues for regional development bonds as an instrument to save forests.
> "Read the PDF report - "Unlocking Forest Bonds"
> Read the press release below — and join the WEBINAR on 29 Sept.
> You're invited to hear Judith Stewart, CEO of the Great Barrier Reef Foundation, speak about Reef Bonds on Tues 27 Sept, 4pm London time. Location: central London; dial-in available.
Climate Change investment usually means 'mitigation' – clean energy to reduce power sector emissions, transport to shift away from oil, etc.
We've been working - with a bunch of others - on a project for the European Climate Foundation around finance for a transition to a low-carbon Europe. The report of that project has just been released. http://goo.gl/0PPYV
If you want a short-cut summary go straight to the European Energy Review article about the report that came out yesterday. http://goo.gl/clBuL
Some of the findings:
Earlier this week I sent you a note about our "LEEP" project to develop capital markets financing solutions for residential eco-refurbishment (energy efficiency + micro-renewables). It's a UK project at the moment, with plans to extend our work to other countries. Key features of the model are:
- Local Authorities facilitating and supervising local loan funds and service delivery for households.
- A mix of policy and service delivery solutions that will address barriers to eco-refurbishment being taken up by householders.
- Re-financing loan funds by issuing climate bonds designed to meet the needs of institutional investors.
The Climate Bonds Initiative has been working all year on developing a sustainable and replicable residential eco-refurbishment solution that attracts commercial capital at a national scale.
The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) will next week publish a Working Paper on the "Role of Pension Funds in Financing Green Growth Initiatives".
> Download a sneak preview here.
The paper is part of their major Green Growth initiative and their Institutional Investors and Long-term Investment work.
We welcome four new members of Climate Bonds Advisory Panel, working to develop green debt capital markets:
Imtiaz Ahmad , Executive Director, Morgan Stanley Bank. Imtiaz was responsible for establishing the Morgan Stanley’s carbon trading and projects business; he is currently working on climate finance initiatives. He Imtiaz is a director of the International Emission Trading Association and a member of the UK Government’s Capital Markets for Climate Initiative.
1. The Southern California Public Power Authority is issuing a tax-exempt $159.4m project revenue bond to prepay for electricity from a wind farm.
The SCPPA is a non-profit “joint powers” agency of 12 public power utilities who come together to finance and acquire electricity generation projects, including many renewable energy projects.
Its model is to hold an undivided equity interest in the facility, issue tax-exempt debt financing to pay for the energy delivery, and sell 100% of the output to the interested members at cost.
This bond is the second; an 2010 bond for $237m (AA-/A1) won numerous 'deal of the year' awards.
The German government decided last Thursday that the country's KfW development bank will finance 10 wind farms with a combined €5 billion; KfW will now be able to provide up to €700 million in funding (and half of that in risk participation) per project.
Keeping financing costs low is essential to making these new large offshore wind farms financially viable under the current feed-in tariff.
Pointer to other countries: that's the way we're going to quickly shift our energy systems to clean.
The newsletter “Asset-Backed Alert” carried a story on Friday suggesting that the US is about to see a revival of PACE (Property Assessed Clean Energy) municipal bonds, securitizing clean-energy loans to households.
