It is a $2 billion unregulated global market. A major reseller of carbon offsets, EKI went from $10 M to $1 B valuation in a year. 95% of the offsets it sells are tied to wind and solar projects, which are profitable even without them. Many “offset-verifying” companies have stopped approving such offsets, but new companies that “verify” them sprung up.

The EU is trying to de-link gas prices from that of electricity and rethink the use of the Netherlands’ Title Transfer Facility price, which is based on pipeline supplies, as the continental benchmark for gas. Other European indexes such as Iberia’s Mibgas, which doesn’t take into account import prices, have experienced a lesser impact.

UK’s DB schemes collectively have £1.5tn assets under management. They will invest more in liquid markets like bonds and gilts. Conversations with investors are around high inflation, more volatility and rising interest rates. Instead of thinking in terms of equities and fixed income, investors are thinking about “risk factors” that cut across asset classes.

HSBC announced plans to launch Orion, its DLT platform for issuing bonds. It enables the tokenisation of both the digital bond and the currency used for settlement, enabling atomic settlement or delivery versus payment (DvP). Tokenisation opens up opportunities for fixed-income issuance, including faster processing and improved operational performance.

Britain’s wind farms produced a record amount of electricity, cutting demand for natural gas just as the temperatures start to drop. The UK’s fleet of wind farms generated more than 20 GW on Wednesday, according to National Grid Plc. In the coming years, the UK government aims to expand its offshore wind capacity to as much as 50 GW by 2030.

The price investors pay to borrow cash overnight by pledging gilts is trading 43 basis points below the BOE’s rate. Low repo rates are due to pension funds hoarding cash and years of quantitative-easing have limited the pool of safe government securities freely available to trade. Demand for high-quality liquid assets still outstrips supply.

Issuances of green and other sustainable bonds have fallen in 2022. Year-to-date volumes of $679 billion were down 17%, outperforming the broader bond market, which declined by 27%. Challenging macroeconomic environment pressures global debt issuance. Corporate volumes account for the bulk of the decline this year with other sectors remaining stable.

Perpetual bonds are the ideal tool to resolve a financial crisis. Not having to repay the principal is a tremendous advantage. Now the interest rate would be high, but after a “non-call” period, bonds can be redeemed and replaced with bonds with a lower coupon. This would address a difficulty pension funds have faced — the illiquidity of long-term gilts.

Both developers are asking state regulators to pause review of the contracts. Increases in interest rates, supply chain constraints and inflation have significantly increased the expected cost of constructing the project. They suggest tax incentives and an increase of prices under the power purchase agreements to make the projects viable again.

Poland has chosen Westinghouse to build its first nuclear power plant. Poland is planning to spend $40 billion to build two nuclear power plants with three reactors each, the first one to be launched in 2033 and the second one in 2043. Nuclear power plants will replace the ageing coal-fired plants in a country with some of the worst air pollution in Europe.

Hybrids do not affect credit ratings and they offer higher yields to investors. They have been used by energy companies. EDF has €13bn in hybrids outstanding. When they mature, issuers can repay them and issue new ones, or roll them over. Rising interest rate make the latter more likely, but that will make investors less likely to buy hybrids in future.

The 10th edition of the Global Green Finance Index (GGFI) evaluates the green finance offering of 84 financial centres. The index is based on a number of existing indices in combination with a survey of senior industry figures from around the world. The GGFI was developed by the Long Finance initiative with support from the MAVA Foundation.