Climate Change Capital snags World Bank carbon guru
London, 19 January: Ken Newcombe, who built the World Bank's pioneering carbon finance business, is to join Climate Change Capital (CCC). Newcombe is set to join the boutique London-based merchant bank at the end of February, when he will become head of special solutions, with a particular focus on carbon finance in the waste and water sectors.

In 1999, Newcombe was the driving force behind the Bank's decision to launch the Prototype Carbon Fund, an innovative investment vehicle that helped kickstart the development of the carbon market, by investing in and developing projects that earned carbon credits under the terms of the Kyoto Protocol on climate change. The Bank has subsequently raised some $1.8 billion into its suite of carbon funds.

"We are thrilled that Ken Newcombe is coming to join Climate Change Capital," said James Cameron, chairman of CCC. "He brings unparalleled experience of the global carbon market and a lifetime of knowledge of the energy and environment nexus, especially in the developing world."

"I'll be responsible for developing new business lines consistent with Climate Change Capital's carbon trading and cleantech [financing] aspirations," Newcombe told EFP Online, "as well as helping across the board with origination, advisory and carbon finance."

"What's important is that we drive new products that support sustainable development, and the rapid expansion of socially and environmentally desirable technologies in emerging markets," he added.

Newcombe said that he was leaving the World Bank as its carbon finance business embarked on a new phase of its development. He said that it is moving from laying the foundations of an international market in carbon, to looking at the post-2012 carbon market (after the first period of the Kyoto Protocol comes to an end) and pushing carbon finance into the poorest parts of the world. "I feel extremely fulfilled by my time at the Bank," he added.

For the foreseeable future, Newcombe will remain based in Washington DC, but will spend at least one third of his time in London, and most of his time outside the US.

CCC focuses on companies and financial institutions affected by the regulatory and capital market responses to climate change. The company currently has more than $150 million under management for investing in low-carbon opportunities.