The Post-2012 Carbon Credit Fund, managed by consultants First Climate and backed by public banks, has signed emission reduction purchase agreements with five projects.

Term sheets have been signed with a further eight projects.

First Climate would not disclose how many certified emission reductions (CERs) the fund now had in its portfolio, but it has €125 million under management and is buying primary credits in a €7-8.00 range.

The company announced in January it had bought 1.15 million CERs for the fund, which is backed by the European Investment Bank, Caisse des Depots, Instituto de Credito Oficial, KfW Bankengruppe and the Nordic Investment Bank.

The fund will seek to source credits from clean development mechanism (CDM) projects in China and India, particularly in the wind energy sector, and a landfill gas project in Nigeria.

Urs Brodmann, the fund manager with First Climate, told Point Carbon that the fund would only target projects whose credits are eligible to be used for compliance within the EU emissions trading scheme.

Simon Brooks, vice president at the EIB, said the point of the fund was to kick-start investment in post-2012 projects, shore-up confidence in the CDM, and offer developers the security of carbon finance.

“The Fund… guarantees to purchase CERs based on current Kyoto regulations, irrespective of any potential changes to the framework in the future and independent of whether an agreement has been reached in time or not,” he said.

Source: www.pointcarbon.com/news/1.1126911