CLIMATE CHANGE - GLOBAL THREAT OR BUSINESS OPPORTUNITY?

January 05

Mark Woodall, co-founder of Climate Change Capital, the specialist energy-related advisory company, will be the guest speaker at the next Great Eastern Investment Forum breakfast meeting on 20 January, 2005.

Mark will talk about the investment opportunities arising from commercial solutions in the energy world which address the challenges of climate change. Mark will look at how the enhanced searches for cleaner fuels, the need for secure power sourcing and innovative technologies are opening new investment opportunities. He will give an overview of current markets and dynamics and give examples of early stage companies that are developing innovative approaches to these challenges.

Hugh Parnell, a director of GEIF said, "With nearly 20 years' experience working with technology, energy and environmental companies as founder, adviser and investor, Mark Woodall is uniquely positioned to give us a compelling perspective on a subject of great topicality. We need to recognise the issues arising from climate change but more importantly understand the new opportunities that are developing for businesses and investors as a consequence of growing legislative, social and economic pressures. Climate Change Capital is focused entirely on companies and financial institutions affected by the regulatory and capital market responses to climate change."

GEIF, part of the NW Brown Group, has worked with hundreds of early stage companies seeking expansion capital from its business angel members. The group also has a £5 million co-investment fund, GEIF Ventures, established to co-invest discretionarily alongside Great Eastern Investment Forum business angels into promising businesses. Events such as the regular Breakfast Meetings and Presentation Days are part of GEIF's ongoing campaign, 'On the side of the angels', designed to demystify the activities of business angels, to encourage new angel investors and to support the existing angel investment community.

Ends

Notes for editors - For further information, please contact Julie Morgan, Athene Communications Tel: 01733 865040

Mark Woodall - Mark has nearly 20 years' business experience working with technology, energy and environmental companies, as a founder, adviser and investor. Mark is currently the Managing Partner and Head of Financial Advisory at Climate Change Capital, a boutique merchant-banking group which he co-founded in 2003. Climate Change Capital is focused entirely on companies and financial institutions affected by the regulatory and capital market responses to climate change and energy security of supply. In 2000, he co-founded iGabriel, an angel investment company that primarily invested in UK-founded software companies at the seed stage; iGabriel was merged with Pi Capital in 2002. Until March 2000, Mark was the Executive Director of Impax Capital Corporation, a niche investment bank focused on environmental technologies, which he founded in 1993. Whilst at Impax Capital, Mark was responsible for the financial advisory services of the firm and led and completed over a dozen transactions in renewable energy projects and technologies with a total capital requirement in excess of $350 million. Mark has an MBA from the Cranfield School of Management (Dean's List) and was an Officer in the British Army.

Background Information on Climate Change Capital - Climate Change Capital was formed in May 2002 in the belief that there was a need for a specialist financial adviser in new markets that were being created by fundamental changes in energy and environmental policy."

The Climate Change Capital Group ("CCC") provides financial services and products to organisations affected by climate change policy as well as adaptation to, and the physical consequences of, climate change and the responses to energy security of supply. The CCC value proposition is that superior policy and market knowledge leads to superior investment decisions in markets created by government policy. Therefore, the Group has, at its heart, a core competence of markets and policy research in the areas of climate change, environment and energy. This manifests itself into a clear understanding of the associated markets of Clean Power, Clean Fuels, Clean Technology and Carbon Finance with regard to their economics and technologies. The Group, through its subsidiaries, either currently provides or intends to provide, corporate and project finance advisory services, market making and trading of environmental commodities and asset management and investment advisory services for its clients in these four markets.

The CCC Group is a UK-based integrated specialist financial products and services firm, focused on EU markets but with a global perspective. The Group serves four types of client: (1) Financial Institutions; (2) Energy Intensive Companies; (3) Solution Providers; and (4) Governments/NGOs.

Financial Institutions, which comprise venture capital and private equity firms, as well as commercial and investment banks, insurance companies, pension funds and hedge funds, require specialist knowledge when considering any investment activity in companies in the Group's four target markets due to the complexity of policies, technologies and carbon pricing. Energy Intensive Companies, which include electricity generation and supply companies, oil and gas producers as well as companies in the cement, glass, steel, and pulp & paper sectors, need to have a thorough understanding of how to maximise competitiveness within a carbon-constrained economy. Solution Providers, which are either independent entrepreneurial companies or divisions within larger more established firms, provide the technologies or projects which enable the transition to a low-carbon economy. Their primary need is access to capital to implement their plans. Finally, Government departments, whether at the local, national or international level, together with related NGOs and trade associations need specialist advice on the manner in which policy and market mechanisms/responses can be combined to achieve their stated goals.

Due to the international nature of many of the policies and impacts related to climate change, CCC is focused on the EU markets and within the EU it has placed special emphasis on the UK, Germany, Iberia, Italy and parts of Scandinavia due to their economic size as well as their position on the implementation of national and international energy and carbon policies. For more information go to www.climatechangecapital.com

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