Brussels, 29/04/2008 (Agence Europe) - “The €125 million post-2012 Carbon Credit Fund … is beginning its activities,” the EIB said in a press release on Monday 28 April. The EIB, which initiated this initiative, is also the main investor with €50 million. The fund also brings in four other major European public financial institutions: Caisse des Dépôts and KfW Bankengruppe, each investing €25 million, the Nordic Investment Bank-NIB (€15 million) and Instituto de Crédito Oficial-ICO (€10 million). Following the appointment of a consortium of Conning Asset Management (Europe) Limited and First Climate as fund manager, the Carbon Credit Fund is now operational.
This innovative Fund is the first of its kind and will exclusively purchase and trade carbon credits generated in the post-Kyoto period, from 2012 and potentially up to 2022. By assuming the inherent regulatory risk, the Fund will give a clear signal to the market of the EIB and its partners' confidence in the development of a post Kyoto regime while directly supporting environmental projects. The Kyoto Protocol is set to expire in 2012. Uncertainty over the form of any post Kyoto carbon credit trading regime is currently making it difficult for environmentally worthwhile projects to monetise fully the economic benefits of the emission reductions they may make after 2012 the EIB says.
The fund will acquire the post-2012 carbon credit streams of projects already approved, or to be approved, by the Clean Development (CDM) or Joint Implementation (JIM) Mechanisms of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change. (O.L.)