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Major Banks Agree to Follow the Carbon Principles |
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Wednesday, 06 February 2008 |
Three of the world’s leading financial institutions: Citibank, JPMorgan, and Morgan Stanley have created new guidelines on evaluating and addressing the carbon risks in financing power projects. These guidelines, called the Carbon Principles were created in collaboration with leading power companies leading power companies American Electric Power, CMS Energy, DTE Energy, NRG Energy, PSEG, Sempra and Southern Company. Environmental Defense and the Natural Resources Defense Council, and environmental non-governmental. This is the first time that banks have joined forces with power companies and environmental groups to develop a process for understanding carbon risk around power sector investments needed to meet future economic growth while also meeting the needs of consumers for reliable and affordable energy.
The banks have also agreed to follow a standard framework, called Enhanced Diligence, to decide whether to finance high-emitting power projects, such as coal plants. “Leading utilities and financial institutions understand that the rules of the road have changed for coal,” said Mark Brownstein, managing director of business partnerships for Environmental Defense, one of the NGOs that advised with the banks in creating the Principles. “These principles are a first step in facilitating an honest assessment of electric generation options in light of the obvious and pressing need to substantially reduce national greenhouse gas pollution.” Read the full story at Yahoo Finance |
