Category: News

June 30 2017

Japan’s Megabanks Vie for Top Role as Backers of Clean Energy

Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group Inc. and Mizuho Financial Group Inc. are in a neck-and-neck race to be the biggest lead arrangers of lending to the renewable energy industry in the first half of the year, highlighting the more active financing role for Japanese banks in clean energy. Tokyo-based MUFG has the edge over Mizuho in writing […]

June 29 2017

Carney Says BOE Will Keep Polluting Industries in QE Program

The Bank of England Governor Mark Carney said he’ll maintain the status of polluting industries in the central bank’s bond buying program even though he’s worried investors aren’t doing enough to assess the risks of climate change. The bank shouldn’t “overburden” monetary policy with rules that could restrict the kind of bonds that are included […]

June 29 2017

German Tenants Win Right to Generate Solar Power on Rented Roofs

Chancellor Angela Merkel’s coalition is widening access to the solar power market for people who rent their homes in a move to boost green power’s expansion in an election year. Lawmakers are set to pass legislation dubbed “Tenant Power” on Thursday in Berlin. The bill promises owners of tenant blocks a subsidy of as much […]

June 29 2017

Solar Financier Spruce Ends Goldman-Led Review, Names CEO

Spruce Finance Inc. scrapped a strategic review being led by Goldman Sachs Group Inc. that could have resulted in the sale of the clean-energy financier. Instead, the San Francisco-based company promoted two of its senior executives and has begun selling existing loans, leases and power purchase agreements to streamline operations and focus on profitability. It also raised […]

June 29 2017

One Big Reason Emerging Markets Aren’t Getting Hit by Lower Oil Prices

Emerging markets have shrugged off recent declines in oil and other commodities in a display of resilience that suggests they are maturing. MSCI’s emerging market stock index is closing in on a sixth straight month of gains, while its index of currencies is heading for a seventh after advancing every month since the end of November. […]

June 29 2017

Carney’s CEO Club Gives $3.3 Trillion Muscle to Climate Fight

Bank of England Governor Mark Carney said he’s concerned investors aren’t doing enough to assess threats that global warming will have on assets they purchase. The central bank governor who also leads the Financial Stability Board advising the Group of 20 nations also won the backing of more than 100 chief executive officers for his campaign […]

June 29 2017

One of America’s First ‘Clean Coal’ Plants May Have Just Died

A first-of-its-kind “clean coal” power plant that U.S. utility owner Southern Co. has spent years and billions of dollars building in Mississippi appears to be dead. Southern’s Mississippi Power utility is suspending work on the part of the plant that was designed to turn coal into gas to generate electricity. Instead, the complex will run […]

June 29 2017

U.K. Told to Look Beyond Air Conditioning as Heat Waves Multiply

Britain must reassess the way it designs buildings to cope with a warming climate, stepping away from huge expanses of glass and beyond air conditioning that consumes too much energy, a panel advising the government said. The independent Committee on Climate Change, which draws members from all political parties, said a growing number of heatwaves is […]

June 28 2017

China Is About to Bury Elon Musk in Batteries

As Elon Musk races to finish building the world’s biggest battery factory in the Nevada desert, China is poised to leave him in the dust. Chinese companies have plans for additional factories with the capacity to pump out more than 120 gigawatt-hours a year by 2021, according to a report published this week by Bloomberg Intelligence. That’s enough […]

June 28 2017

Shell Seeks Gas Converts Among Indian Textile, Cement Plants

Royal Dutch Shell Plc is turning to India’s textile, cement and steel factories as it seeks to expand demand for its natural gas. The Hague-based energy giant has set up a team of about six executives to identify small businesses that use dirtier fuels like coal and convince them to switch, according to Ajay Shah, a […]