The Asian Development Bank has launched a new environmentally based mutual fund.The Future Carbon Fund is tied to environmental initiatives from the Kyoto Protocol, which is set to expire at the end of 2012.
Currently, 67 countries support the protocol, aimed at finding solutions for climate change as well as the development of cleaner energy in the Asia Pacific region.
In a statement released by Ursula Schäfer-Preuss, the vice president of ADB, the firm is looking to generate anywhere between $100 million to $200 million for the fund.
This new fund will become an incentive for developing countries that are the members of ADB to improve the efficiency in energy utilization and the use of renewable energy, Schäfer-Preuss wrote.
Schäfer-Preuss believes investments in the environment sector will become extremely profitable in the years to follow.
The fund is not the first of its kind for ADB. In May 2007, ADB also released the CMI Asia Pacific Carbon Fund. That fund has exceeded $150 million and focuses on the improvement of carbon credit before 2012.
