Companies should measure their emissions, set mitigation targets, integrate climate risk into their strategies, and comprehensively report on the lot, investors managing more than $20 trillion of assets have said.

Increasing the share of renewable energy in the power generation mix does not always reduce the carbon intensity of the electricity produced, data from Eurelectric shows.

Countries risk missing climate change targets and locking themselves into an “unsustainable energy future” unless they invest more in renewable energy technology, world energy chiefs warned on Wednesday.

Investors managing $20 trillion in assets have repeated a call for urgent “policy action” to stimulate private sector investment into solutions to climate change.

The availability of finance to help developing countries tackle climate change is drying up, imperiling the international climate talks, the head of the World Bank’s sustainable development network has warned.

A trust set up to pay Ecuador not to drill for oil in Yasuní National Park is halfway towards its first fundraising target, thanks to contributions from the Italian government and an executive at the Royal Bank of Canada (RBC).

Emerging markets will increasingly take the lead in the climate economy, as the global economy enters an era of “economic permafrost”, according to HSBC.

Europe is underreporting its emissions of the potent greenhouse gas HFC23, according to a Swiss study, which has led to calls for tougher legislation.

The outlook for climate change-related investments is brightening after a few years when “it’s been a pretty depressing place to work”, according to a leading analyst.

Giant coal-burning utility American Electric Power (AEP) has set a new goal for reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, following the expiry of its targets under the Chicago Climate Exchange (CCX) programme.

Climate targets will be harder to meet and ambitious nuclear building programmes around the world will become more expensive, commentators said, in the aftermath of the suspected Fukushima meltdown.

Standard & Poor’s (S&P) is to routinely including an assessment of climate risk into its corporate credit ratings across all industrial sectors, in anticipation of when climate policy begins to “bite hard” in the next few years.

The Carbon Principles have done nothing to slow down financing of US coal-fired power plants by the six banks that signed the voluntary agreement, according to a report by environment group Rainforest Action Network (RAN).

The former UN climate chief says the political momentum that existed at last year’s climate talks in Copengagen remains, despite the failure to reach a global agreement and the lack of legislative progress on climate action in the US.

Seventy percent of global executives plan to increase investment in climate initiatives over the next two years, according to an Ernst & Young survey.

The World Bank last week approved a multi-billion dollar loan to build the 4,800MW Medupi coal-fired power station, in the face of sharp criticism from environmental groups.

Activist shareholders are turning up the heat on US and Canadian companies to disclose climate change-related risks and opportunities, an effort that is expected to intensify further with new disclosure guidance from US regulators.

Less than half of major European companies are fully integrating carbon exposures into corporate financial decisions, according to a survey by ratings agency Standard & Poors (S&P), despite the imminent impact of a more stringent phase of Europe’s emissions trading scheme.

More than 4,500 companies have been sent questionnaires about their greenhouse gas emissions and climate strategies this year by the Carbon Disclosure Project (CDP). This is up from 3,700 companies questioned last year.

The five financial institutions which founded the Climate Principles have further to go in integrating climate analysis into their operations, according to an independent review of their progress.