Desert crops attract KKR, p12, Australian Financial Review 27 Dec – 1 Jan.  Sundrop Farms plans a 20 ha glasshouse operation in Port Augusta to grow tomatoes and capsicums using solar technology to heat and cool glasshouses and distil seawater.   It now has a ten year contact with Coles and a $100M investment from the US private equity firm KKR.   The SA Govt has provided $6M from a regional development fund.

Climate right for NAB ‘green bonds’, p16, Australian Financial Review 27 Dec – 1 Jan.  The NAB has just launched a $300M ‘green bond’, which was oversubscribed, to lend to 17 renewable energy projects.    The money was borrowed from local institutional investors at 4% fixed interest.  The Clean Energy Finance Corporation invested $75M.    The World Bank was the first to issue a climate bond in Australia when it offered $300M in AUD in April 2014.    The NAB bonds were certified by the Climate Bonds International Standards and Certification Scheme.  Since its launch in November 2011, around US$503B of climate bonds have been issued.    The NAB’s Steve Lambert says that these bonds will ‘help develop local investor’s willingness to fund infrastructure’

The Climate Bonds Initiative is an international, investor-focused not-for-profit. It’s the only organisation in the world focusing on mobilizing the $80 trillion bond market for climate change solutions. Seehttp://www.climatebonds.net/.  The Climate Bonds Initiative is a charity registered in England and Wales. The Governors of the charity provide management direction, seeking and acting on the advice of the various constituent committees of the Initiative: the Climate Bond Standards Board, the Climate Bonds Advisory Panel and various technical committees.  These Boards and committees include a wide range of well qualified people.

Papal encyclical: Pope Francis will issue an encyclical on climate change ahead of the UN climate change meeting in Paris in December 2015   An encyclical is the most authoritative document the Pope can issue.