FORMER Allco Equity Partners chief Peter Yates has entered into a partnership with one of the world's richest men, US billionaire Bill Gates, with plans to set up a E400 million ($650 million) carbon trading fund in China.
Under the partnership, Mr Yates will be a non-executive director of the fund's management company Peony Captial and will also take a small share of about 2 per cent.
The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation Trust will be an "anchor shareholder" in the fund, with a E100 million investment -- about 25 per cent.
...The fund is evaluating a large number of projects in areas such as waste heat recovery, wind farm power generation, energy efficiency, coal mine methane, landfill management and small scale hydropower. Carbon emissions saved are deemed to have created a carbon credit, which Peony on-sells to buyers in industrialised countries in the form of tradable Certified Emission Reduction certificates.
The Beijing-based fund is about to complete the first of several large carbon reduction projects in China. It involves two large fuel-switching projects at one of China's largest power generators.
Peony Capital says those two projects are forecast to lead to the abatement of about 10 million tonnes of carbon dioxide between now and 2012. "That is the equivalent of the amount of CO2 created by a quarter of Australia's cars in one year," it says.
From the Australian
