Bonds are a set of financial products ideally suited to both the financing of long-payback period energy projects and to providing institutional investors with security of returns over the longer term. Climate Bonds are intended to unlock ‘patient capital’: taking savings which require secure returns over long periods of time, such as those held by pension funds, and investing them in low-carbon projects that have high up-front costs but good payback rates over the long term. Climate Bonds need not differ greatly from existing government and corporate bonds, save for their central purpose: the funds they attract are underpinned by real and verifiable energy efficiency and renewable energy projects that in some certifiable manner contribute to the mitigation of climate change. At a minimum this has marketing benefits, allowing investors to report to their members on how their secure investments are also making a contribution to addressing climate change. At a maximum, investors...

 Climate change is anthropogenic—the product of billions of acts of daily consumption. That solutions need to be anthropogenic too is well accepted. Yet, suggested solutions are normally cast in the realms of finance and technology, often neglecting the primal root of the problem: individual behavior. An emerging body of  social-psychology scholarship has examined the barriers and drivers of individual behavior in relation to both adaptation and mitigation. This paper reviews some of its conclusions, and suggests policy areas that should be considered. This is a Policy Research working paper and has been writen by Andrea Liverani on behalf of the World Bank.

Later this year, the Government will launch a package to help SMEs better understand and respond to the opportunities and risks posed by the move to the low carbon economy as part of their UK Low Carbon Industrial Strategy. The package will consist of four key elements. One of which will be a guide for business, by business, on the uptake, development and marketing of low carbon solutions, to be produced this autumn, by Tomorrow’s Company, in partnership with businesses, Government and other organisations.  The guide is being supported by Halcrow, HSBC, Ogilvy & Mather, Marks & Spencer and the Carbon Trust, among others. This is laid out on page 74 of the document.