Since 2016 the European Central Bank has adhered to the “market neutrality” principle, which aims to avoid distorting relative pricing of securities by only purchasing them in proportion to the overall eligible market. Mr Weidmann defended the principle and said: “It is not the task of the Eurosystem to penalise or promote certain industries.”

110 billion euros will need to be invested in Germany’s electricity network by 2050 in order to meet the demands of the energy transition, according to a new study. Without these investments, “follow-up costs” of 4.2 billion euros a year could be incurred because of overloaded networks that are not able to absorb renewable-generated electricity.

The rapid growth of the green bond industry is fanning suspicions that some debt is environmentally friendly in name only, encouraging investors to ignore the (green) label and focus on the credentials of the issuer instead. “We don’t buy a bond because it’s green, but because the company is,” said Tom Chinery of Aviva Investors.

Banks are putting pressure on giant oil-and-gas companies to accelerate their renewable strategies. Credit Suisse has partnered with the Climate Bonds Initiative to accelerate the energy transition. The duo has established a pathway for companies to issue “transition bonds” as a bridge between their current business and greener offerings in the future.

The EU has offered its first social bond. The offering was oversubscribed 14 times over. Orders blew past 233 billion euros. It gives new issuers significant incentive to offer their own sustainable debt, companies and sovereign entities. A 14-times-oversubscribed sustainable debt offering also indicates a market that’s structurally underserved.

In the first nine months, new money going into climate-aware funds totalled €37bn out of sustainable fund inflows of €134bn. However, climate change funds can be confusing. There is not yet a standard classification. Iberdrola or Enel are often held in climate change funds though still derive significant revenue from emission-generating activities.

Manually initiated load shedding is a call for people to stop using electricity, at a certain period of time to stop the electricity system collapsing. These kinds of events are becoming more frequent, due to a combination of hotter summers and increased instability due to renewables forming a higher percentage of the electricity mix.

SEB AB expects to be the first to arrange a sustainability-linked bond in the Nordic region. The pipeline of deals would add supply to a market that has struggled to keep up with investor demand. Debt issuance for projects targeting climate neutrality now fall far short of the roughly €290 billion in investments needed annually, according to ECB estimates.

Alternatives to lithium-ion using materials such as zinc, vanadium, or sodium are well-suited for stationary storage used by utilities to capture renewable energy and deliver electricity to consumers hours later. The sector is poised for surging growth, with annual installations projected to rise from 6 GWh last year to about 155 GWh in 2030.

How to manage intermittency is one of the challenges of weather-dependent low-carbon electricity. It is not simply about paying for back-up for when nature refuses to play ball. It generates additional system costs. A report by the UK’s business and energy department shows how they change the economics of different low-carbon energy sources.

German Treasury attracted more than €33bn of bids for up to €6bn of 10-year debt. Issuance of green bonds has exploded in recent years, as fund managers hunt for assets linked to ESG criteria. Germany’s plan to become carbon neutral by 2050 could cost as much as an extra 1.1 per cent to 2.8 per cent of gross domestic product a year.

Companies around the world are developing a new generation of reactors. One model can even fit into a single-family house. These power plants are designed to make nuclear energy affordable. There is a growing awareness that closing coal or natural gas plants could lead to electricity shortfalls as seen in California’s rolling blackouts earlier this month.