Three of the world’s leading financial institutions today announced the formation of The Carbon Principles, climate change guidelines for advisors and lenders to power companies in the United States. These Principles are the result of a nine-month intensive effort to create an approach to evaluating and addressing carbon risks in the financing of electric power projects. The need for these Principles is driven by the risks faced by the power industry as utilities, independent producers, regulators, lenders and investors deal with the uncertainties around regional and national climate change policy.
The Principles were developed in partnership by Citi, JPMorgan Chase and Morgan Stanley, and in consultation with 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, environmental non-governmental organizations, also advised on the creation of the Principles.
The principles are:
- Energy Efficiency
- Renewable and low carbon distributed energy technologies
- Conventional and Advanced Generation
This is a very healthy development, when the financial backers start to ask questions of the developers and start to use the funding, not only for profit as they well should, but also to help improve and change status quo, that is leadership. We are delighted to see this declaration from Citi, JPM, and Morgan Stanley. Now, there is a small matter of execution, will these companies actually practice the Principles when push comes to shove? Time will tell, but it’s an excellent first step and they are to be commended for taking it.
One other key question, will others sign on?
