Italian utility Enel has raised €3.13 billion ($3.91 billion) from the sale of a large stake in its Spanish power utility Endesa to institutional and retail investors.
Japan and the US made separate climate funding announcements at the G20 (Group of Twenty) summit of world leaders in Brisbane, Australia, on November 15th and 16th. The two countries pledged up to $1.5 billion and $3 billion, respectively, to the UN Green Climate Fund.
Italian utility Enel SpA is to simplify its Latin American operations and focus on electricity distribution and renewable energy as it increases investment in the region’s growing markets.
The International Energy Agency’s (IEA) World Energy Outlook 2014 (WEO-2014) launched in London yesterday has warned that current events could distract decision makers from recognising and tackling the longer-term signs of stress that are emerging in the energy system.
China and Russia deepened their energy ties with a second major deal that further reduces Russia’s reliance on Europe as its main gas off-taker. The preliminary gas-supply agreement signed in Beijing by Russian President Vladimir Putin and Chinese President Xi Jinping, would also secure 17 per cent of the gas supplies China needs by the end of the decade.
The UK Green Investment Bank (GIB), leading global investment firm KKR, and specialist investment manager Temporis Capital LLP have announced a new £200 million lending programme for community-scale renewable energy projects in the UK.
National Grid has warned that its capacity to supply electricity this winter will be at a seven-year low due to generator closures and breakdowns.
Rainer Baake, State Secretary at Germany’s Ministry of Economic Affairs , has said that the government will decide a programme on December 3, 2014 aimed at improving energy efficiency and possibly reducing the amount of electricity currently produced by coal fired plants.
The European Union’s environment agency says its greenhouse gas emissions fell by nearly two per cent last year, putting the bloc very close to reaching its emissions target for 2020.
French state-owned utility Eléctricité de France (EDF) is facing a major shake-up. According to Dow Jones newswire, the French government is likely to sell shares in as part of a broader objective to raise several billion euros of the French state’s asset portfolio in the coming year and a half.