European fund to support post - 2012 climate projects

The European Investment Bank (EIB) and four other public financing institutions have launched a €125 million fund to boost investment in clean energy projects that are to generate carbon credits after 2012.

The Post-2012 Carbon Credit Fund will exclusively purchase and trade carbon credits generated after the Kyoto Protocol expires in 2012. The aim is to support the market value of environmentally worthwhile projects amid uncertainty over the actual form that the carbon credit trading regime will take after 2012.

Both the scramble of governments to agree on a follow-up of climate pact by the end of 2009 and the uncertainty over long-term prices for carbon are increasingly affecting the development of projects.

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 Fund will contract credits from projects, for delivery as far away as 2022, under the Kyoto Protocol's Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) and Joint Implementation (JI) schemes, which allow industrialised nations to offset carbon emissions at home by funding "clean" projects in the developing world.

The fund will be an asset for the EU to remain at the forefront of international efforts to combat climate change.