Bryan Martel is managing director of California-based Environmental Capital Group. He serves as the advisor to the CalPERS California clean energy and technology fund, and other West Coast investors, on the environmental performance of private equity investments. He is one of the drivers behind the P8 and serves on its Secretariat. Bryan will also be joining the working party for the Climate Bonds International Standards and Certification project.
Climate Bonds Blog
Posted: Dec 12, 2010
Bryan Martel and Vince Julier join Climate Bonds Advisory Panel
Posted: Dec 11, 2010
As the Cancun sun sets .... Russia helps sink Kyoto / UK Climate Change Committee a hit / Climate Finance Fund gets up / China’s low carbon Five Year Plan ... see below.
1. The UK Climate Change Committee (a statutory body under their Climate Action Bill) was popular amongst Cancun NGOs this week with its call for 60% emission cuts in the UK by 2030 and 50% by 2025. One NGO newsheet called it a “ray of sunshine”.
13 farewell COP snippets: >Indian hero >Finance Fund mess >China shows the way > and more
Posted: Dec 8, 2010
The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development has released its first green bond, with funds raised being used to finance environmental sustainability projects. This follows similar bonds issuance by the World Bank, the International Finance Corporation, the European Investment Bank and the Asian Development Bank.
EBRD does green bonds as well
Posted: Dec 7, 2010
11 snippets today:
Cancun snippets #2: >$13 tn of investors hammer govts >Germans propose 100% renewable by 2050 >Bolivia blocks REDD >+more
Posted: Dec 5, 2010
Friends: I'm at the COP16 Conference in Cancun, aiming to talk about climate bonds as a mechanism to divert private investment to building a low-carbon economy. Here are six snippets from my first 24 hours:
7 Cancun snippets: >machine-guns >Japanese pre-emptive strike >climate talks CEO in tears >and more
Posted: Dec 1, 2010
Ebrahim Patel, the SA Minister for Economic Development said in an interview this week:
"... using retirement funds as a resource to drive growth and development did not mean the government would impose requirements on institutions. The proposal, supported by labour and retirement trustees in the past, had simply lacked "reliable instruments to invest in", he said.
One possible example was a green bond, created by a development finance institution, such as the Industrial Development Corporation, which could apportion a prudent amount of funds towards green economy initiatives.
South African Govt Minister talks about issuing green bonds
Posted: Nov 30, 2010
The Australian Conservation Foundation has just released a useful new report, "Funding the transition to a clean energy economy" (see http://goo.gl/AGPdQ). Among other things, the report recommends the Australian Government issue Climate Bonds, tied directly to financing clean energy.
Australian climate finance report recommends Climate Bonds
Posted: Nov 24, 2010
This letter to investors is how they report on the use of funds raised with Green Bonds - environmental accountability.
World Bank Green Bonds investor update
Posted: Nov 23, 2010
The Climate Bonds Initiative has begun work on a crop of new projects. We're looking for a London-based researcher/analyst to help.
The successful candidate will be involved in a variety of projects developing workable policies and solutions to scale up investment into the low carbon economy.
An ideal candidate will have strong communication skills, a good working knowledge of climate policy, economics and finance, imagination and a sense of humor.
Send details to sean(a)climatebonds.net.
We're looking for a researcher/analyst
Posted: Nov 20, 2010
The "Andromeda" bond sale involves the securitisation of SunPower Italy's project finance loans for construction of two adjacent Italian solar parks with a capacity of 45.3MW and 6.1MW. Lead managers are BNP Paribas and Société Générale.
These will, as far as we know, be the first bond linked to solar assets. There are two issues of EUR 97.6 million; the first is fully backed by the Italian Import/Export agence, SACE, and rated Aa2 by Moodys. These have been placed with European institutional investors. The second tranche are not backled, and are rated Baa3; they've been placed with the European Investment Bank.
New Italian solar bond aims for €200 mil