Bankers & Insurers fight Climate Change
Sponsored by financiers and advised by environment experts, ECF contributes to the financing of projects that help fight climate change by reducing greenhouse gases emissions across the world. The main purpose of ECF is to invest in carbon assets, which are market-based greenhouse gases emissions reduction instruments from the Kyoto Protocol and the European Union emissions trading scheme.

Initiated in 2004 by two major European banks (French Caisse des Dépôts and Belgian/Dutch Fortis Bank) in april 2005 and managed by Natixis Environnement & Infrastructures, ECF successfully raised €142.5m in 2005 from several investment-grade financial institutions.

Objectives
The purpose of the ECF is to finance the carbon component of environmentally friendly projects and provide liquidity to the new European carbon market. The ECF purchases, mainly project-based, carbon assets on a forward basis from developing or transition countries, and therefore contributes to the successful financing of such projects. These carbon assets will later contribute to increase the liquidity on the EU ETS.

ECF Shareholders
ECF’s innovation was to bring together financiers to sponsor and manage an investment vehicle with advise from environmental and sustainable development experts, in order to participate in projects that help combat climate change across the world. All ECF shareholders are investment-grade entities resulting in ECF being a top quality carbon markets participant and a reliable counterparty for potential sellers and buyers of carbon assets.

Investment and Financial Governance
Being a Luxembourg investment company (SICAV), regulated by the Commission de Surveillance du Secteur Financier ( Luxembourg financial authority), ECF abides by all applicable laws, rules and regulations concerning its activity as mutual fund in the European Union.

ECF is supervised by a Board of Directors nominated by its shareholders. The extensive role of the Board comprises the endorsement of the investment policy.

Management team of complementary expertise
ECF is managed by Natixis Environnement & Infrastructures, a certified asset management firm licensed by the AMF ( France’s financial market regulator) that specialises in financial engineering for the environment and infrastructure sectors, a subsidiary of Natixis, a major investment and project bank in Europe (S&P AA).

The ECF management team has considerable skills and credentials to allow it to operate successfully within emerging carbon markets:
• sound knowledge of carbon products
• experience of environmental and sustainable development issues
• strong expertise in energy project finance
• experience in asset management
• extensive experience of conducting transactions in developing countries

Natixis Environnement & Infrastructure launches a new carbon fund
After the success of ECF, the carbon finance team of Natixis E&I is launching a second carbon fund before the end of 2007: the European Kyoto Fund (EKF). EKF will be placed amongst institutional investors over the first semester of 2008.