News

• NYSE, BNEF ignore dismal performance to launch new renewables indexes

  29 November 2011

  NYSE Euronext has launched the first of a family of clean energy equity indexes, which it claims will help investors make more targeted investments in the sector.

• EU, US spell out climate finance flows as Durban floods

  28 November 2011

  Representatives from the EU and the US have quantified the amounts pledged to developing countries in climate finance as the two-week Conference of the Parties (COP) to the UN climate convention in Durban got off to a damp start.

• Industrial air pollution costs Europe €169bn

  25 November 2011

  Air pollution from the 10,000 largest polluting facilities in Europe cost citizens between €102 billion and €169 billion ($137 billion-$226 billion) in 2009, according to the European Environment Agency (EEA).

• Booming biomass demands harmonised sustainability standards – Eurelectric

  24 November 2011

  The EU may need to double its primary biomass supply by 2020 if member states are to meet their renewable energy targets, according to Eurelectric, the trade association for Europe's electricity industry. This will require substantial imports and harmonised criteria on what constitutes sustainable biomass, the association says.

• Meteor eyes £50m for clean energy and carbon fund

  24 November 2011

  Meteor Asset Management has set an initial target of £50 million ($77 million) for its Clean Energy Fund, which will invest mostly in energy projects in developing countries that also generate carbon or other offset credits.

• Insurance leaders lagging on climate investments

  24 November 2011

  Insurance companies are still failing to adequately incorporate climate change risks into their investment portfolios, according to an initiative designed to help the industry respond to global warming.

• UK needs green taxes, say experts

  24 November 2011

  The UK government should shift the tax burden onto pollution, said market experts at The Guardian's CleanTech summit on Tuesday.

• Google cuts renewables programme

  23 November 2011

  Google has cancelled its initiative to drive down the cost of renewable energy, citing the low price of solar modules, but says it remains committed to its more than $850 million of investments in renewables technologies.

• Renewable energy deployment "needs to pick up" – IEA

  23 November 2011

  The world risks locking itself into a high carbon energy system without a radical change in policies, including a global carbon price, according to the International Energy Agency (IEA).

• SRI pioneer proposes Henderson SRI buy-out

  23 November 2011

  Socially responsible investment (SRI) pioneer Tessa Tennant has said she would like to help convene a "rescue group" to buy out Henderson Global Investors' SRI fund management business, following the company's announcement that it is making its SRI team redundant.