ICE

According to the press release, “Through 21 September, ICE’s CDS clearing houses have cleared $12 trillion in gross notional with aggregate open interest of $1.1 trillion. ICE Clear Europe has cleared euro 3.4 trillion ($4.6 trillion) of gross notional value of CDS transactions, including euro 530 billion in single-name CDS, resulting in euro 443 billion ($580 billion) of open interest. ICE Trust has cleared $7.4 trillion of gross notional value, including more than $3 billion in buy-side clearing and $455 billion in single name clearing, resulting in open interest of $494 billion.”

Source: ICE Press Release

AFD, EIB and EDFI members will sign a Memorandum of Understanding for THE INTERACT CLIMATE CHANGE FUND (ICCF) at a meeting in Bruges on Friday. The Parties intend to establish an investment matching facility to invest in private sector climate change projects in Africa, the Caribbean and the Pacific, Asia and Latin America before the end of 2010.

The institutions have extensive experience operating across developing countries and emerging markets and share a joint interest in financing climate change and climate efficiency projects with the aim of creating a portfolio of climate friendly private sector investments in target countries.

Partners will seek to demonstrate the financial attractiveness of climate-friendly projects to private sector investors in developing countries and emerging markets and will commit to act as catalyst lead investors to attract additional long-term investments.

The institutions will further promote use of clean technology as an integral part of economic development and provide long term financing for renewable energy projects in countries facing acute energy shortages and restricted energy access, further contributing to economic development;

Funding is expected to be provided by Agence Française de Développement, the European Investment Bank through the Cotonou Investment Facility and 12 EDFI members: BIO (Belgium), CDC (United Kingdom), COFIDES (Spain), DEG (Germany), FINNFUND (Finland), FMO (the Netherlands), IFU (Denmark), NORFUND (Norway), OeEB (Austria), PROPARCO (France), Sifem (Switzerland) and SWEDFUND (Sweden).

The initiative has the twin aim of promoting sustainable development of private sector climate change projects and strengthening meaningful co-operation between European Development Finance Institutions, AFD and the European Investment Bank.

The European Investment Bank’s Director General for Operations outside the European Union and Candidate Countries, Martin Curwen, the acting Director General of AFD, Jean Michel Debrat, and the Chairman of EDFI, Luc Rigouzzo, expressed their commitment to the ICCF initiative at the signing ceremony in Bruges. ”

Source: Press Release

While we are all concerned with what calendar will be gracing our walls for the next year, Europe is concerned with much bigger things. Earlier this month Europe announced plans to construct an enormous North Sea electricity grid in 2010. The blueprints for the grid will be released soon following the agreement signed by nine European nations just last month.

A super-grid of such scale could provide, or at least aid in establishing, long-term energy independence for the Europe. This enormous project serves as a vital step towards greater consolidation and integration of this continent’s energy grid. If all goes well the super grid will ideally connect the mass of offshore wind farms in northern Europe to the solar panels in the south. Such a convenience would allow nations to pass along any surplus of energy along to grid to those who need it.

One of the major caveats of renewable technology has been their inability to produce energy around the clock, making it a somewhat unreliable, and unpredictable as the natural elements they rely on. Connecting these to the super-grid, however, will eliminate or at least minimize the shortcomings of inconsistent energy production. Thanks to newly developed cable technology the energy in these distant renewable energy farms can now be allocated to the areas with the greatest need.

Consolidating power makes sense for the consumer as well allowing for overall cheaper utilities since the energy is readily available regardless of location. As a result of this project, renewable energy would be more widely promoted eventually allowing Europe to reach its goal of cutting greenhouse gases by 20 percent by the year 2020. The scope of this project even allows a goal of cutting greenhouse gases by 30 percent realistic.