Features: Australasia

30 July 2010

Biofuel comes of age as oil majors purchase maturing assetsp

History is filled with innovators who made less money than the people who sold their inventions, as they lacked distribution methods or sales infrastructure to supply their product to market. Oil super majors look set to make history repeat itself as they begin to pick the winners in the biofuel arena.

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27 April 2010

Australia drops plans to implement cap-and-trade schemep

Australia has dropped a plan to introduce a mandatory cap-and-trade system to reduce carbon emissions until the Kyoto Protocol expires at the end of 2012, putting doubt on the further adoption of such schemes.

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29 March 2010

Businesses’ efforts to tackle climate change halt in 2009p

Global efforts to tackle climate change by big businesses have stalled over the past year, according to a new report by the Economist Intelligence Unit.

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19 March 2010

Increased environmental liabilities top risk management agendap

The heightened environmental liabilities created by recent European Union (EU) and UK environmental legislation were among top risk management concerns, according to insurance broker and risk adviser Marsh.

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22 February 2010

Latest World Bank green bonds issuance exceeds $1bnp

The latest issue of World Bank green bonds has pushed the total amount to $1.1bn. The AAA rated fixed interest investment vehicle is managed by Swedish Investment Bank SEB, with the latest tranche, denominated in Swedish Kronor (SEK) will pay a coupon of 3.25 per cent maturing in 2017. The bonds continue to be aimed at a growing demand from institutions and pension fund managers to support a low carbon economy.

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7 September 2009

Climate Change Politics Floods Australian Parliamentp

The Australian Parliament recently approved a renewable energy law that requires that renewable sources supply 20 per cent of the country's electricity by 2020. Previously, the Mandatory Renewable Energy Target (MRET) set a target of generating 9.5 billion kilowatt hours of electricity, which the government expected to achieve by 2010. The new standard provides AU$22bn (US$18.5bn) of investment support for the renewable energy industry to produce 45 billion kilowatt hours of renewable energy by 2020, writes Ben Block of the Worldwatch Institute.

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24 August 2009

Environmental Social Governance Investing – where to next for Australian and New Zealand investors?p

Environmental, Social and Governance issues have been an area of focus for Australian and New Zealand institutional investors for many years now. Investment approaches seeking to affect positive change have come a long way from relatively simple and logical beginnings relying upon Socially Responsible Investing screens. Increasingly sophisticated research into company behaviours has created a multitude of different screening possibilities, although some regional investors now question whether this in fact dilutes the potential impact, writes Joseph Fekete is the joint managing director and principal of advisory and research firm, Clearway Capital Solutions.

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