Liebreich: Feed-In Tariffs – Solution or Time-Bomb?
By Michael Liebreich Chairman and CEO New Energy Finance As the first of $163bn worth of promised stimulus spending starts to soak into the parched ground of the world’s clean energy industry, attention is shifting back to the perennial question of the policy mechanisms required to drive the roll-out of renewable energy over the longer term.
Liebreich: Smart Grid – A Leap of Faith
By Michael Liebreich Chairman & CEO New Energy Finance Over the past five years the grid has moved from the periphery of discussions about how to restructure the world’s energy system, to its very heart.
Liebreich: Why Cap-and-Trade Will Continue to Hold the Aces
By Michael Liebreich Chairman and CEO New Energy Finance Anyone who was underestimating the ferocity of the high-stakes card game being played in the run up to Copenhagen in December should be doing so no longer, thanks to the fate of this month’s official negotiating sessions in Bonn. Work on a draft negotiating text will now have to continue in further rounds of discussion in Bonn again in August, then Barcelona and at Bangkok in the autumn.
Liebreich: The Risk is that the Next Cycle Could Be Another Roller-Coaster
By Michael Liebreich Chairman and CEO New Energy Finance Last month our chief editor Angus McCrone reported on the astonishing drop in investment activity in the clean energy sector in Q1 this year, and speculated on whether the stimulus funds being launched with so much fanfare around the world would help prevent 2009 being consigned to the garbage heap.
New Energy Finance Summit: The Book 2009
A special publication documenting the 2009 Bloomberg New Energy Finance Summit, which took place in London from 4 to 6 March.
State of the Voluntary Carbon Markets 2009: Fortifying the Foundation
Executive Summary This report was created to answer fundamental questions about the voluntary carbon markets such as transaction volumes, credit prices, project types, locations, and the motivations of buyers in this market. Over the past several years, these markets have not only become an opportunity for citizen consumer action, but also an alternative source of carbon finance and an incubator for carbon market innovation. As the voluntary carbon markets have rapidly gained traction, the answers, to these questions have become increasingly important to investors, policymakers, and environmentalists alike. For example, since the last edition of this report, we have seen various U.S. climate bills make reference to voluntary carbon offset standards, the Japanese government launch a voluntary carbon-offsetting scheme, and the U.K. government issue an official definition of “carbon neutral.” Proving the legitimacy of carbon offset projects remains a major issue in the marketplace, leading to a so-called “flight to quality.” Last year saw further establishment and greater functionality of voluntary offset standards; the emergence of new registries; the forging of new partnerships between infrastructure providers; the formation of coalitions to encourage self-regulation; and increased market transparency. At the same time, existing and potential voluntary market consumers became more sophisticated as literature and education around offset quality increased. All of this points to a further maturation of the market in 2008. However, the voluntary carbon markets, like any other commodity market, were not immune to the over-arching forces of the economy and regulatory developments.
McCrone: Will the Cavalry Come Over the Hill?
By Angus McCrone Chief Editor New Energy Finance So now we know how bad it is. The clean energy sector was in deep hibernation through the winter months, with investment levels sharply down in asset finance, venture capital and private equity, and – most dramatically of all – in the public markets.
Liebreich: Is It Right to Feel Optimistic, Pessimistic, or Even Both?
By Michael Liebreich Chairman & CEO New Energy Finance We were delighted to welcome so many of you to the second New Energy Finance Summit in London earlier this month. If there was one single over-riding question, it was whether or not it was justifiable to feel optimistic about the state of the world, and about clean energy and the carbon markets in particular.
Clean Energy League Tables 2009: The Results
Bloomberg New Energy Finance (BNEF) Clean Energy League Tables are the most transparent and comprehensive benchmarks for identifying active clean energy investors, project financiers, investment banks and law firms.
McCrone: Last Into Recession, but Can Clean Energy also Be the First Out?
By Angus McCrone Chief Editor New Energy Finance Is the clean energy sector in recession? There is no doubt that much of the rest of the world economy is – every day seems to bring grimmer and grimmer figures, one of the latest being that Japan’s economy contracted by an extraordinary 3.3% in the last quarter of 2008.