News

• $20bn boost for US?wind power supply chain

  01 June 2008

  Companies supplying the US wind-energy industry should be the biggest winners of plans by Texas oilman T Boone Pickens to build America's largest wind farm in the Texas panhandle, analysts say.

• Noble Environmental to blaze trail with Nasdaq IPO

  01 June 2008

  US wind energy developer Noble Environmental Power has filed plans to raise up to $375 million via an initial public offering on ­Nasdaq – the first time a ­significant US wind energy developer has tested the ­public markets.

• Fund managers 'a long way' from addressing environmental risks

  01 June 2008

  The fund management industry as a whole increasingly recognises that environmental, social and governance (ESG) issues can influence risk and drive returns, but it is struggling to integrate them into its day-to-day operations, according to a new study.

• Carbon market worth $64bn in 2007 – World Bank

  01 June 2008

  The value of the global carbon market doubled last year, to $64 billion, the World Bank said last month in its annual State and Trends of the Carbon Market report. However, growth in transactions from new Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) projects came to a halt last year and risks plummeting as the Kyoto Protocol's expiry in 2012 nears.

• Private equity giant to develop environmental metrics

  01 June 2008

  Leading US private equity firm Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co (KKR) is to require companies in which it invests to measure and improve their environmental performance, in a partnership with Environmental Defense Fund (EDF). The two organisations are to develop pilot metrics that they hope will be rolled out across KKR's portfolio and, ultimately, more widely.

• Shell turns away from landmark wind project

  01 June 2008

  Royal Dutch/Shell is weathering a storm of criticism after confirming plans to sell its stake in the London Array – a massive 1,000MW offshore wind farm.

• Exxon resists shareholder revolt on climate, governance

  01 June 2008

  ExxonMobil has resisted pressure to strengthen its response to climate change by the descendants of the company's founder, John D Rockefeller, as well as by large institutional shareholders, including the $250 billion California Public Employees Retirement System.

• Coalition questions EBRD and IFC?financing for ArcelorMittal

  01 June 2008

  Multilateral banks are under fire for continuing to finance the expansion of ArcelorMittal, despite the steel giant's questionable record on meeting environmental, social and human rights standards.

• Supply chains targeted to disclose carbon risk

  01 June 2008

  The Carbon Disclosure Project (CDP) is sending a second series of questionnaires to more than 1,000 companies supplying major multinational businesses, to try to understand better the climate risks in supply chains.

• Troubled carbon firms set for takeovers

  01 June 2008

  Carbon project developers Econergy and AgCert are both set to be taken over, following troubled times for both firms.