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Carbon Credit Markets
2007-07-30 23:04:00
In this day and age of carbon foot-prints is the solution of offsetting them really a means to reduce emissions or is it a means to create a lucrative market. Basically, being able to earn carbon credits would have to come from either; the creation or pledging to create a mechanism that eliminates carbon or preventing the destruction of a currently in use mechanism that is reducing carbon. It is also possible to be allocated quotas any reductions from this quota can also be sold. What makes this great is that the carbon reduction can be sold on the global markets. Fundamentally, however, this does not reduce any actual carbon emissions but is more like a futures contract to eliminate what has already been released into the atmosphere.To look further into this an example can be drawn from what is going on in Indonesia. This is a country that has vast areas of forest. However much of this forest is being cut down to make way for palm oil plantations. Part of this increase ironically i...
More About: Credit , Markets , Carbon , Carb

Bad Weather not Climate Change
2007-07-27 21:23:00
In the recent weeks there have been intense bush fires in Greece, a killer heat wave in central Europe and heavy floods in the UK. Where is the connection one might ask? Well with all the hype one could only assume that it?s all due to climate change, of course! Even Gordon Brown links the floods in the UK to climate change, he also needs to come up with £200 mil to build Britain?s new flood defence system.But before ranting on about the hassles of raising £200 mil we should really question if all of these extreme weather events can really be linked to climate change. The ?North Atlantic Oscillation? has been a weather models used to predict changes in the regions weather patterns, but suddenly the predictions made by this have to be attributed to climate change rather than this model as old as time itself! But really, in the words of David Lerner ?its not climate change, its just bad weather?.I?m unsure of what the motives for using climate change as the blame for the fires and hea...
More About: Weather , Climate Change , Climate , Change , Chang

Farmers, Money & Climate Change
2007-07-21 15:31:00
Farmers in Australia are still mixed up in a debate on whether climate change is in fact man made or if it is a natural course of events. To paint the scene, why is it that when there were dry conditions it was called a drought but now the same dry conditions are known as climate change! But whiles these farmers are arguing whether or not climate change is man made or complaining that the government is not doing enough, AgForce has already come up with a business scheme the will win the public vote and make the farmers a lot of money if they only stopped the debate. Of course they would all have to agree that climate change is real and man made, which the gov will defiantly back, because then they can open their farms to carbon credits. But a trading scheme is not being ratified by government for what ever reasons but being implemented by AgForce in a, sort of, private carbon trading scheme. So can one really say that climate change is now a political force or has it now fallen out ...
More About: Money , Climate Change , Climate , Change , Farmer

Sun not Blamed for Climate Change
2007-07-14 15:52:00
Recent research by the Science and Technologies Facilities Council has ?proved? that there is no link between the sun?s cosmic activity and climate change. Whilst their position does state that there may have been some link in the past, the matter is that the sun has actually been cooling and the global mean temperature has been rising over the past 20-40 years. What this tells us is that the suns? cosmic activity may have created the climate changes in the past but the theory no longer applies to the changes now.The first question that I would like to ask is what exactly is the global mean temperature? How is it calculated? What does this figure represent? And is there actually a relation between the suns? activity and the ?global mean temperature?? The second problem that I would have with the research conducted by Mike Lockwood is that it also neglects to challenge all three of the theories that have been put forth advocating the role of cosmic activity in climate change. There i...
More About: Climate Change , Climate , Change , Blame , Lame

The Place of Clean Coal
2007-07-11 11:39:00
With all the talk over the past year about climate change, the role of nuclear power in the energy mix does seem to be gradually increasing. But in other areas of the world such a Germany the political opposition is growing. It is not just the demand for nuclear energy but also the alternatives such as wind and solar are also facing challenges to get their technology to the market place. The objective is clear; to increase energy security and take care of the environment. The difficulty is getting industry to adopt such technologies as well as securing the financial backing for such things. But there is one area of the green industry that has been keeping quiet ? this is the use of clean coal technology.All this fuss over alternative energy and it is still clean coal technology that seems to be moving the fastest. Currently it is the biggest generator of electricity and will continue to account for the majority of electricity generation in places like the USA through the year 2025. ...
More About: Clean , Coal , Place , Lace

Skepticism on Climate Change
2007-07-04 19:25:00
It seems that in the domain of climate change, from a poll made by Ipsos Mori, that the majority of the public are more concerned with terrorism, anti-social behaviour and dog shit on the pavement than climate change. Out of these people that are sceptical the majority of them also believe that the whole global warming swindle is there to make money, and quite rightly so.The question is not whether global warming is man made or not, this debate seems to be getting old. Personally it is clear that this has been exaggerated because of the creation of an industry, and there is a lot of money being pumped into it. The questions should really be whether the adoption of a low carbon life style is really a bad thing or not. On the grounds of morality it would be unreasonable to falsely encourage consumers to fork out extra money for products that are supposedly going to stop global warming. If global warming is not man made then it there is no reason to reduce the carbon emissions. Basical...
More About: Climate Change , Climate , Change , Skepticism , Chang

Regulation and Investing in the Infrastructure of Utility Companies
2007-06-26 12:02:00
Utility companies today are facing the biggest challenge of changing their operations in a relatively short time period. The biggest changes that need to take place are focused on environment, but there is also a further drive due to the security of supply of fuels. The matter is that to create these changes requires a substantial amount of investment to be made in order to bring about what is needed. But trying to find this investment is not an easy task when the largest risk for most utility companies is regulation volatility. In times when regulation is volatile and change is feared then an investment can unexpectedly become a bad investment.Now according to PWC, in this industry 42% of respondents felt that they were behind on the renewables. Now considering that renewables is supposedly big etc. whether this is due to regulation fears or for other reasons it does not seem that there is fast enough progress in this respect. Although the consensus for the use of nuclear fuel does...
More About: Companies , Regulation , Infrastructure , Investing , Utility

The New EU Treaty
2007-06-23 09:30:00
The new treaty for the EU (or what used to be the constitution) seems as though it will finally be pushed through as was promised by the Germans. Although this was pushed by the French it seems as though it will suit the Germans too. Two things that they were keen on was pushing a constitution and making sure that Europe has a secure energy supply. But are the proposals that are being made undoing 50 years of effort to create ?freely competitive? markets or is this the next step forward? But if this is the next step forward then why is it that the notorious competition commission has acted so aggressively?The biggest proposal is to describe the role of government as ensuring a ?social market economy aiming at full employment.? Essentially the primary worries is that government will in fact be able to prop up failing companies and offer financial support in the name of society and keeping full employment. But in the future surly these worries will be able to extend to what other acti...

Capitalising Climate Change
2007-06-14 09:30:00
Is climate change and opportunity for industry? Is this something that businesses and companies can profit from? The first question that should be asked to find some kind of answer is whether climate change is something that is firstly man made and secondly something that can realistically be prevented. Now whilst it may sound very scandalous and contrary to what everyone else is thinking in even debating this but there is some very convincing arguments out there indicating that climate change may be natural and beyond human control. More information on this can be seen here and the documentary can be seen here.To firstly put this into perspective in the 1970?s there was the threat of global cooling. So it is possible that global warming could also be a mistake. The link between carbon dioxide creating the warming may not be the correct link, in fact it could be the warming that is creating the extra carbon dioxide. This is relying on the matter that most of the carbon dioxide that ...
More About: Climate Change , Climate , Change , Capital , Chang

G8 - What Happened?
2007-06-12 09:30:00
Although the G8 meeting may have been marred by the comments made by Putin the issues of environment and climate change were not deterred, or where they? The point is that the fab-8 all agreed that there was great need to cut greenhouse gases etc. but some how they managed to skip the part where they all commit to any specific amount of reductions they pledge to achieve. However they did stress the importance of these emission reduction efforts as much as possible with out going to the extent of making specific commitments. (So much for Germany really pushing the hard line like they said they would!) What I liked was the matters of ?energy security? being pushed into the same domain of climate change during this G8 meeting. The funny part is that this was probably done to piss the Russians off after the comments they made. Considering that it?s mainly the Germans that are fighting for their energy security and the fight is against Russia and their gas. Does this mean that the fight ...
More About: Pene

Single ETS Markets
2007-06-08 09:30:00
As we stand, the carbon trading markets that exist in this world are still segregated from each other. So far there is the Chicago Exchange, the European Exchange the Asian Exchange, now Russia is in motion and there is still more on the way. What this is meaning is that the price of carbon is not universal but rather can differ between them. So when the procurement of carbon is too expensive in the EU, it can be procured in the international market place. However there is always going to be an FX risk at stake, and this is a headache for most managers. So of course this means that for carbon markets, if an exchange is not functioning well it will not be spurred the others Exchanges. The theory being that the amount of competitors in the same market place will increase and the weakest will be driven out. More to the point having these Exchanges competing globally would stir the competition that is meant to be brought about by the market place as there would now be no room for slacke...
More About: Markets , Single , Mark

Adopting Green Technology
2007-06-06 09:30:00
Whilst the topic of climate change and how to cut greenhouse emissions is all very hot right now, one thing that people seem to be overlooking is the extent to which new and cleaner technology can be adopted by the market. With $7.1 bn of global investment, the US accounting for $4.5 bn of it, there does not seem to be a shortage of innovation or investment. But all this would be pretty worthless if none of it is brought to the market place to take effect.Now according to rules of thumb for venture capital, there is normally a time lag of 10 years for ground breaking technology to be adopted by the main stream market. This is 5 years for developing and finding a cost effective way to manufacture the product. And another 5 years for the market to absorb it to the point where it can be considered mainstream. But if this is meant to be moving faster then what methods will be used to speed up the work of the private sector?From economics classes I would remember the neoclassical school ...
More About: Technology , Green , Opti , Adopt , Ology

The Carbon Industry
2007-05-28 09:30:00
Carbon trading has been a new creation whereby ownership of carbon emissions is needed before a company can release them into the atmosphere. Furthermore the right to emit carbon is also transferable at a market rate. The concept is based on a regulatory and legal framework and mainly spurred by the Kyoto Protocol stuff. What this has meant for investors and the rest of the financial world is that this is the creation of a $2.3 trillion speculative market.The rights to emit carbon have to be owned first. The idea of having a market in this is to create a scarcity of the amount of carbon that can be emitted. Economics would dictate that a low supply would lead to a high price. So if carbon is costly suddenly the alternative (and green technology) would become more attractive option. The main problem is how to allocate the carbon quotas in the first place. Secondly is the challenge of policing the regulations. All the while this new market must trend carefully because if the costs of ...
More About: Industry , Carbon , The Car , Carb

Green Energy Industry
2007-05-21 09:30:00
The issues of global warming, climate change or the green house effect has now been discussed by scientists for quite some time now. It has not been in politics for as long as it has science, but it has been in politics for time enough. Green politics is creating a demand for the green industry and business now seems to be booming. The question on climate change still remains: is the issue of global warming created by carbon emissions or will it occur ?naturally??For the mid-term it doesn?t really matter as the effect on the business world is the same, so long as climate change remains a political topic investments will continue to flow to this industry as there is enough incentive for the allocating generous budgets and subsidies to business development. If climate change is caused by carbon emissions and the solution is to reduce them what business is going to be able to deliver the technology that is going to make changes big enough to reverse the effects of climate change? At th...
More About: Industry , Energy

Uranium Futures Market
2007-05-17 09:30:00
The uranium futures market has finally opened on 6th May 2007 at the Nymex exchange. Since it?s opening there has been very light trade considering the anticipation from the awaited arrival. The matter is that very few investors are willing to invest in such a vehicle in the early days but it should be clear that the potential gains can be massive. What this may bring to the market is an increase in volatility which may be unwelcome as it is going against the intention of making this market.One of the intentions of the U3O8 (yellow cake) futures exchange is to make planning and strategy for the utility companies easier. By having futures in uranium supplies it creates transparency in the pricing which is meant to give consumers of uranium more information to act on. It also means that the price changes in uranium can be hedged and the risk managed by using futures contracts.The ?old? way of buying and selling uranium was done between supplier and consumer directly. The process on pr...
More About: Market , Uranium , Futures , Mark , Rani

EU Pledges 30% Carbon Reduction
2007-03-18 09:30:00
In the not so distant past the EU has pledged to make the EU a clean place to generate electricity by making a reduction in total carbon emissions by 20% by the year 2020. This has recently been agreed upon by the member states. What is notable here is that most of the member states have acknowledged that there is a great role in the role of nuclear power. What makes this interesting is that the new bill was to encourage the use of renewable energy generation like Germany and Denmark. However coming from France there seems to be a very good point made by their president; they want a change of wording from renewable energy to ?low-carbon emitting? energy. What this will mean is that any investments into nuclear technology can be justified on the grounds that it is low carbon emission. What makes this good news is that it is being left to each state to decide on the ratio of nuclear energy in the total energy mix.What is standing out the most over the past weeks is that the EU is said...
More About: Carbon , Redu , Reduction , Pledge , Carb

Uranium Portfolios
2007-03-08 09:30:00
The nuclear industry has been attracting a lot of attention from new eyes. In the past the nuclear industry has been scrutinised by environmentalists as well as other types of groups, but now these eyes are more focused on the greener issues and global warming. Ironically the nuclear industry is now appearing to play a larger and larger role in reducing the pressures of global warming.This as increased the pressure on the so called ?dirty energy? or fossil fuel energy such as oil or gas. Aside from the global warming and carbon emissions there are two other strains on the use of fossil fuels. First is the countries that are supplying the oil and gas are not always the most stable of countries. As gas is generally cleaner to use than oil, its not like anyone would like to rely on Russia as a gas supplier. Second is an issue that is at the back of every ones mind, that there is only a limited supply of fossil fuels left. What is of even more importance is that the cost to produce ener...
More About: Uranium , Portfolios , Rani

Uranium Portfolios
2007-03-08 09:30:00
The nuclear industry has been attracting a lot of attention from new eyes. In the past the nuclear industry has been scrutinised by environmentalists as well as other types of groups, but now these eyes are more focused on the greener issues and global warming. Ironically the nuclear industry is now appearing to play a larger and larger role in reducing the pressures of global warming.This as increased the pressure on the so called ?dirty energy? or fossil fuel energy such as oil or gas. Aside from the global warming and carbon emissions there are two other strains on the use of fossil fuels. First is the countries that are supplying the oil and gas are not always the most stable of countries. As gas is generally cleaner to use than oil, its not like anyone would like to rely on Russia as a gas supplier. Second is an issue that is at the back of every ones mind, that there is only a limited supply of fossil fuels left. What is of even more importance is that the cost to produce ener...
More About: Uranium , Portfolios , Rani

Spring Cleaning in the World of Finance
2007-03-04 09:30:00
The equity markets in China have not had the best week so far. Amidst all the fears of the Chinese government restructuring and tightening the trading rules it seems that on Tuesday the trouble started in Shanghai as the equity markets fell by about 9%. This trouble spread towards Europe first then to the America?s. The rest of the week has been interesting for the stock markets as nearly all shares have been treading carefully.What this means for the financial world is ambiguous. Whilst Market Watch may be saying that the bearish break will give birth to a small bull in the coming weeks. This is based on the matter that in the past it is observed in the month following a down-turn blip there is normally a bullish break. Although there is little rational reason to believe this apart from past observation, for this time round there is some reason to see why the slump will strengthen the markets.The reason being is that the markets have been good for a long time now. There has never b...
More About: Finance , World , Cleaning , Spring , The World

The State of Global Economic Analysis
2007-02-17 09:30:00
We already know how fast financial capital can flow in the electronic age. These days the speed at which non-financial capital can flow has never been faster, and capital is flowing between national economies at very large volumes. What makes this era of high volume capital flows different from when the New World was discovered is the velocity and the utilisation of capital from a distance.The financial capital is moving from ?poor? countries in Asia to the West, the end result being high consumer debt which has its own set of impacts. This is not the main point here, although it does bring with it many questions. What is of greater significance is the way in which physical capital can be utilised in one country whilst it the physical capital is in another. Consider the computer and data services.Because of this, changes and developments in one economy will impact another economy to a greater degree than before. In fact, as an economy moves more and more towards knowledge driven eco...
More About: Analysis , Global , State , Economic , Stat

Green Peace & British Nuclear Power
2007-02-15 09:30:00
It seems that Green Peace may have finally delivered the final blow to any triumph Blair may have had on his exit from Downing Street. The new nuclear plants that were proposed has been put on hold after it was ruled that there was not enough public consultation on the proposals. The point is that there is now going to be delay and even more uncertainty in the construction of the new nuclear plants. The matter is that Green Peace may feel that they are doing the environment a favour, but they aren?t.The plans to ratify the plans for construction has come from the government not presenting crucial aspects of the policy for waste disposal, and other health & safety standards. The claims of carbon reduction is by using nuclear technology is estimated to be 18-22 tonnes per year by 2020. The arrival of the new nuclear power plants are estimated to be at about 2023-2030, which is apparently too late. The cuts in carbon emission as a result of nuclear power is about 4% for the UK.The matt...
More About: Power , Nuclear , British

Strong US Data
2007-02-11 09:30:00
Looking at how the global economy is developing there seems to be a rather negative feeling coming from the general market. This is psychological. The data that is being churned out, especially in the US economy seems to be strong and positive. What is taking its toll on the market to bring about such negativity?The equity boom in 1999/2000 burnt many investors when it crashed. Seven years later the pain is still felt by many investors and has left them weary. The matter is that after the equity?s the best vehicle for investment has been in property ? which has been booming over the past few years. At the moment there is much talk about the property bubble bursting in the near future, so it is understandable that investors are not feeling comfortable with the way the economy is looking.What people are missing is the strong data, higher pay role, better productivity and low inflation (or relatively low). The matter for the bearishness on the economy is purely psychological; people ar...
More About: Data , Tron , Strong

Pressure on for Germany
2007-02-07 09:30:00
The challenge to reduce CO2 emissions is leading to some heated politics and the threat of ?legal? action. The EU commission chief says he will disallow favourable treatment to countries that want their needs customised regarding the CO2 quotas.So far between 2008-12 Germ any is going to be allowed 453.1m tonnes of emissions. This is a short fall of about 30m tonnes from the plans that Germany had. It seems likely that the commission will disallow the increase just because of the request. What matter is what type of legal action can be pursued and how successful it would be. Legal analysts better come up with an answer soon, otherwise German industry will start to take matters into their own hands.What can industry do? The whole scheme of carbon trading seems like a more likely solution. The matter is how much carbon emissions can be reduced to free up the scope of carbon that is available for trading. The reliance on the introduction of new technology that helps this is needed. What...
More About: Sure

Regulating Carbon Reporting
2007-01-29 09:48:00
I spoke earlier with scepticism about the implementation and achievement of reducing carbon emissions despite the fact that reducing green house gases being high on the political and business agenda. Already many countries, as well as large business, have pledged to meet their carbon targets by 2010. But with things the way they are with business reporting standards, there may be some difference between the actual reductions and the reported reductions.If the new standards of 'carbon offsetting' reporting is going to ratified by the British government then it would bind large business like Tesco's and Marks & Spencers to stick to their pledges. This means that the investments into the 'green industries' would be pretty much a sure thing.
More About: Carbon , Carb

German Nuclear Extensions
2007-01-27 09:30:00
The energy initiative from Brussels is becoming old news, and the revival of the new constitution form Germ an y?s Ms. Merkel is also getting there. Is this another flash in the pan for Europe or does this mark a perfect opportunity for solidarity amongst European member states. If there is to be a constitution, then we must show that all our boats are sailing in the same direction, and I believe that the energy initiative is the prefect place. There are just a few minor problems that need to be ironed out.Part of the energy drive of Europe includes the PINC programme (Commissions Nuclear Indicative Programme) has shown that nuclear power is going to play a vital role in meeting the targets for carbon emissions and also for securing an independent energy supply. This has been backed by the Deutsche Bank. Nuclear energy will remain a key component of the EU energy portfolio. The problem is that Germany, a country that is phasing out its nuclear power is also the country that started th...
More About: Extensions

Investing in Water Rights
2007-01-20 09:45:00
Given the state of the global climate change and the emphasis on the greener politics and business there seems to now be no shortage of investments into green technologies. One issue that seems to have slipped the nets is water shortage. As far back as I can remember many countries in Africa have always faced water shortages. More recently it?s become no secret that countries like India, China and Spain are drying out.But the water shortages are not limited to these countries alone. Global warming has been heating the earth and drying out places that used to be abundant with water. With places like the UK imposing hose pipe bans during the summer, it is becoming ever increasingly hard to find sources of water. Once the water source is found, someone has to pay to use it. Given the high demand and the low supply, it follows that the prices of these water rights will increase astronomically over the coming years.For more information on how to take advantage of the rising price of wate...
More About: Rights , Investing , Water

Investing in Deutche Nuclear Power
2007-01-20 09:30:00
It has become evident that the fact that Russia was able to rock Germany?s energy supply has exemplified the need for Germany (and the wider EU) to have a secure energy supply. As this is so, it has been enough to bring up the topic of nuclear power in Germany, which has been somewhat of a taboo. These two matters has bought up a divide in the energy initiative for the German?s. First if the ecology issues, the second is the security issues.Whilst German politics will resolve the issues regarding nuclear power use and new plant constructions in due cause, it has left scores of investors in suspense. Just like in the UK last year, there was great political risk surrounding uranium investments. Investors lacked the confidence for solid policies and a framework for operation, as well as a guaranteed life spans have been the toils. Considering the financial commitment for the construction of new nuclear power plants, high construction costs, high operating costs and even more expensive ...
More About: Power , Nuclear , Investing , Nuclear power

The Future of German Nuclear Power
2007-01-18 09:45:00
With all the hype about the Russians cutting off the gas pipe to Belarus two weeks ago and the news from Brussels last week, how is the EU going to secure their own internal energy supply?With the new initiative focusing on the reduction of carbon emissions, it may seem that nuclear power is a sound solution. Now whilst there may be some convincing pros or cons regarding the use of nuclear power the current arguments are green. Meeting these goals of the Kyoto protocol lye?s upon the use of nuclear energy or renewables. However there simply isn?t enough efficiency provided by alternative sources like wind or solar. For German y the gap in the energy markets that will be made by the phasing out of the nuclear plants will need to plug about one third of their energy needs. Considering that wind farms are only currently generating 4.3% of Germany?s energy use it would mean that there would need to be unprecedented expansions in these wind farms and solar power stations, new technology o...
More About: Power , Nuclear , Future , The Future

Industrial Revolution in Europe
2007-01-17 09:45:00
The energy drive announced by the EU commission is aiming at reducing green house gases by 20% by the year 2020. Is this incentive that is too ambitious and has it come too late? Has this been a result from the conduct of Russia and their oil negotiation tactics? Whatever it is, it certainly seems to be high on the Europe an political and business agenda this year. Whilst there may be a number of contributing factors, meeting the Kyoto protocol targets is something that has been creeping its way up the agenda over the past few years for many of the member states.So what is the drive all about? Whilst there are three main pillars to this ?revolution? the matter for us is that consumption of energy in the EU has been increasing and does not show any signs of slowing down. Furthermore, the rate of production is set to decrease which means that the volume of imports must fill the gap. The idea of the drive is to make ensure that the EU market will not be subject to supply shocks in the f...
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Business Climate 2007
2007-01-12 09:30:00
Now looking more towards the business side of things, so far it appears that smaller companies would be the ones to prosper in 2007. In this day and age, there are more takeovers and bolt-on's in the past two years than there has been in a long time. We have already witnessed one that has impacted us - the takeover of Eureka Mining by Celtic Resources should hit this fact home pretty hard.Furthermore for the fifth year running, smaller capitalised companies have performed better than the blue chips. This can be seen by looking at the years increase in companies valued less than £50 million have increased by nearly 20% as opposed to the FTSE100 increasing by about 11%. What this means is that the small companies that are in operation at the moment are instigating more confidence in returns, profits and achievement than the larger companies. Because of the amount of bolt-on takeovers, especially in the technological sector and pharmaceutical companies, it would appear that these comp...
More About: Business , Climate , Sine