Analysis

The Carbon Reduction Commitment (CRC) is labelled as a cap-and-trade initiative. But how much trading will actually take place?

A variety of incentives have been introduced to stimulate improvements in energy efficiency, including tradable white certificates. Philippa Jones reports on recent developments in this unsung market

It's an ill wind that blows no good. The credit crunch sparked interest in non-correlated assets – driving investors towards Nephila Capital, a specialist in catastrophe and weather risk markets. Christopher Cundy reports

A growing carbon market will see an increasing number of carbon funds bringing together capital and carbon assets. Michael Tannenbaum and Scott Furman consider how they are being structured

It's been an uphill struggle, but the US Securities and Exchange Commission is finally giving serious consideration to ESG disclosure, says Lisa Woll

Developing countries will bear the brunt of climate change – and have an urgent need for risk management tools. Gonzalo Pizarro, Upmanu Lall and Mirey Atallah examine how index-linked insurance could help

Index insurance is insurance linked to an index, such as rainfall, temperature, humidity or sea surface temperature, rather than actual loss. This approach solves some of the problems that limit the application of traditional insurance in rural parts of developing countries.

With carbon offsets likely to be central to any US carbon cap-and-trade system, Kenneth Ivanic suggests what buyers should be looking for

Hajime Watanabe may work for a Japanese investment bank, but his approach to environmental finance looks beyond the bottom line. He talks to Mark Nicholls

For many, the recent G8 and Major Economies Forum (MEF) were a big disappointment. Environmentalists had hoped the industrialised world would agree to emissions reduction targets for 2020. They were also expecting signals from some of the larger developing countries, members of the MEF, that they would accept limits to their emissions, maybe committing to 2050 targets.