Green Investing Part V - Oz cleantech Index
May 28th 2008 04:41
I have been wanting to write this post for a while. For those wanting to Invest in Green stocks in Australia we finally have a set universe outlined for us, The Australian Cleantech Index or ACT has been formulated CLICK HERE TO GO TO THEIR WEBSITE to see their methodology It has a market Cap of about $11bn give or take which, ill have to admit is surprisingly large. Some of the names are a stretch, but you can't blame them for trying now can you.The list of names aren't published on the web-site but I happen to have them for Orblers

CLICK THROUGH TO http://www.climatered.com/

have written some previous posts that cover about half these stocks, Ill be doing some more work on these except for obvious areas of conflict in my philosophy such as biofuels.

cheersLouie

new round of climate change talks

A new round of Climate Change talks kicks off in Bangkok this week.Not sure why but Penny Wong is not attending, instead Australia will be represented by a delegation, the talks must be pretty low level, but any progress will be important.Here is a quote from the Executive secretary of the United Nations Framework convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), Yvo de Boer
“The challenge is to design a future agreement that will significantly step up action on adaptation, successfully halt the increase in global emissions within the next 10 to 15 years, dramatically cut back emissions by 2050, and do so in a way that is economically viable and politically equitable worldwide,” (UNFCCC).Here is a link to the UN News centre if you want more details.As has been discussed before, the key to these talks is participation from China and India, we need to give them enough to motivate them to agree to firm targets so that everone can be on the same page. Steering the talks in the direction of adaptation is a good start to achieving this goal. If we can focus on changing our behaviour and all working together the talks will be much more progressive. Here's hoping the US don't try to derail them this time, mind you it is pretty clear the next US President, whoever that will be, will have a much stronger mandate to be part of the Global solution.cheersLouie

The Truth comes out

: The Truth comes out

Ok so I promised to try and stay out of Politics and Climate Change during this election but I just can't help myself, one more post (I almost promise)

So now we find out the Labor Party has an almost identical policy to Kyoto as the Liberals, under pressure they have admitted they would only sign Kyoto under the same conditions the Libs would. I don't necessarily think this is the greatest thing in the world for Australia's efforts at being part of the Global Warming solution but I am glad that we are all on a level playing field now and the smoke screen is being cleared.

Climate Change/Global Warming shouldn't be an election issue in my view, we all need to do our bit every day regardless AND THAT GOES FOR WHOEVER IS IN GOVERNMENT. It shouldn't be about Kyoto it should be about us caring for the Future and for the Planet.

Below is an article from the Australian with excellent FACTS (its been a while since we saw facts in the press) about Climate Change, Carbon Emission Statistics and the Kyoto status quo.

cheers

Louie

P.S. Be interested to know who out there thinks Climate Change should be an election issue.
CLICK HERE FOR STORY OR SEE BELOW

Principles for Responsible Investing

PRI: Who What When Where Why How

October 20th 2007 01:00

: UN Principles for Responsible Investment: PRI

What are Princples of Responsible Investment and Why should you care about them?

The Principles of Responsible investment are the guidelines set out by the United Nations for Fund Managers to create a Global benchmark for responsible investing. Why should you care? Well we all have money invested somehow with our Superannuation, the more pressure we put on large companies to sign up to these Prinicples the more they will have to embrace the philosophy; and this will make the world a better place: money talks.

The Aim of the Principles is to simply add the conscience element to investing. Yes we all want superior returns but signatories of the PRI have to take other things into consideration when making investment decisions. The key things taken into consideration are Environmental, social and Corporate governence factors. By taking these factors into consideration before investing signatories are encouraging corporates to improve their performance in areas such as Environmental Impact (Carbon Emissions), Human Rights. The prinicples incorporate the United Nations global compact and encourage corporations to embed these principles in the way they do business. corporates are encouraged to have set policies in areas such as human rights, labour standards, the environment and anti-corruption.

We all know that money makes the world go round and you can pretty much say that dirty money is responsible for a lot of the Damage to the Environment, terrorism, human rights violations and the list goes on. If large corporations are cut off from investment because they don't adhere to standards then they will not survive, the more money that flows into good corporations the more good will be created.

These principles are a unique way to get financial markets and leaders from the investment community to contribute to the objectives of the UN and simply make the world a better place to live in.

Many Australian Financial insitutions have signed up, and 8 trillion dollars of money under management has already committed to this project globally

but f you can believe it this is nothing...... the UN Web site has great links and has some great stuff if you want to go and check it out. CLICK HERE

The more we care the more they will do.
cheers

Louie

Rough ride Ahead

Rough ride ahead

October 17th 2007 01:38

I have decided to get my Political Climate Change post out of the way early on in this election campaign and then try to stay out of the fray with maybe the odd comments as a P.S. here and there (here's hoping)

There is no doubt that Climate Change is an election issue, I was just on a Climate Change site where kevin07.com came up in the Google Adwords Ad, so Labor are clearly pulling out all stops to make it an election issue. As much as I am all for Climate Change awareness I can't help but secretly think that I don't want Climate Change to be an election issue, mainly because of the misleading statements that will inevitably be made.

Climate Change is an important issue and it would be a shame for all of us to lose sight of the FACTS. There has already been enough damage to the few good things we are doing e.g. the Collapse of the NSW NGAC System and the collapse of Companies like Easy Being Green. Much as I don't think these systems were doing enough they were better than the nothing we currently have during this political uncertainly: Liberal and Labor are GUILTY HERE

The best thing that can happen is for the Liberals to do what they alluded to last week i.e. say they will sign the new Version of Kyoto and that people would be AWESOME and should be the END OF CLIMATE CHANGE as an issue for this election campaign, let them slug it out on other issues.

Let's FACE IT PEOPLE they are preaching to the converted, hell even johnny Howard has backflipped on the issue.

OK thats it from me, you all know where I stand, here's hoping I can bury my head in the sand.

cheers

Louie

P.S. I do have thoughts on Climate Change and the noble Peace Prize on www.climateforum.com.au

Backflip almost entirely complete....

Backflip almost entirely complete....

October 11th 2007 06:10

It is being reported today that the Government via Malcolm Turnbull have said they may ratify the new version of the Kyoto Protocol in Nov/December.......hands up who is shocked....

Should be no-one, they have def been warming up to this complete 180 for some months now, to pledge to ratify this treaty is the Icing on the cake and even tho I hate talking politics it says to me that the Govt will call the election any Second now...they are just ironing out a few thorns in their side...as has been discussed before apparently polls say 86% of us care about this issue they have successfully messed up so you could call this issue a thorn....... here we go....the sooner its over and done with the better I say....

Just quietly my favourite bit is the fact that he thinks being part of a global Agreement is in the National Interest....hmmmmmm....

story below with link

Cheers

Louie

Really Long Link

Turnbull hints at ratifying new climate change agreement

Posted Wed Oct 10, 2007 6:39pm AEST
Updated Wed Oct 10, 2007 6:54pm AEST
Mr Turnbull says the Commonwealth is committed to an effective international agreement, if all the major emitters come on board.

Mr Turnbull says the Commonwealth is committed to an effective international agreement, if all the major emitters come on board. (AAP: Tracey Nearmy)

* Audio: Turnbull willing to ratify Kyoto's successor (PM)

Federal Environment Minister Malcolm Turnbull has signalled Australia may ratify the next international climate change deal that comes into effect when the Kyoto Protocol expires.

Australia has refused to ratify Kyoto, but Mr Turnbull says the Commonwealth is committed to an effective international agreement, if all the major emitters come on board.

He says the move is in the national interest.

"We are committed to a new international climate change agreement which is environmentally effective," he said.

"To be environmentally effective, it will need contributions to those reductions from all the major emitting countries, be they in the developed or the developing world."

But Labor Environment Spokesman Peter Garrett says it is a huge about-face on the eve of an election.

"I've got to tell you, after listening to these people talk in disparaging terms about climate change action for over three years of being in the Parliament and prior to coming into the Parliament, I don't take the spin that comes from the Government all that seriously," he said.

Cool or be Killed Part II

As published on my other site www.climateforum.com.au

Cool or be killed Part II

October 10th 2007 00:56

: Peter Garrett weighs in on Climate change and Terror

Climate Change and Terrorism becomes political....well more political. Following on from my post on Friday called Cool or be killed CLICK HERE I thought it was interesting if not slightly amusing that yesterday......

Opposition environment spokesman Peter Garret weighed into the Climate Change and terror argument by surprise surprise taking the opposite position to John Howard and Malcolm Turnbull stating that Climate Change is in fact linked to Terror.

Peter Garrett said that Climate change is a "threat multiplier" that will exacerbate already unstable situations. Here are the exact words from the statement.

"As food production declines, diseases start to spread, clean water is scarce, and people move in large numbers seeking new opportunities and resources. Of course, there is an increased risk of non-state terrorism and traditional war,"

I pretty much hate politics so am not going to comment further. I have found a transcript of an address Peter Garret gave to the national press club in august which (if you filter out the political sledging) is an EXCELLENT account of what Australia needs to do to clean up its act....I would much prefer to do something positive than get involved in Politics

Here is the link (its a big read) CLICK HERE
Its also worth exploring the ACF website it is full of info.


Here is an excerpt which pretty much covers the guts of it, the rest is pretty detailed so is for anyone who has half an hour to spare.

Address by Peter Garrett AM to National Press Club
Peter Garrett


National Environment Test: How do our politicians score?

I'd like to begin by acknowledging we are meeting on Ngunnawal land and offer respects to the elders and traditional owners.

Late last year millions of Australians sat the National IQ te st; last night on TV and at home millions sat the National Drivers test. These tests have captured the imagination of many so we want to extend the testing to our leaders on the subject of the environment-a subject whose time is now.

I can clearly state that as a nation we're failing ourselves and our kids on care for the environment. Know that we can and must do better, I want to look at what needs to be done and how our political leaders rate on the national environment test

It's not only a test of whether their policies will turn around the damage to our fragile land. It's also a test of how well they are listening to Australians who are speaking up for a cleaner, smarter and greener future.

On this last score ACF judges that both major parties might be slowly waking up to how deep the environmental concern is within mainstream Australia. At the same time we believe they remain well short of the action required.

This slow awakening is showing up in our research, which I'll share with you later, and in other polling too. Judging by the recent statements of both parties, we think its starting to show up in their research as well.

Primarily ACF believes Australia needs a bold package of sustainability reforms to not only protect and repair this battered ancient land, but also generate jobs and a healthy economy.

We reckon there are five key tests for a sustainable Australia. And we need to pass them all if we are to protect our natural heritage and develop an Australian economy & a society free from environmental damage for the generations that follow.

The five tests are:
1. Show national leadership - by a commitment to sustainability reforms which matches the commitment to competition reforms of the last decade. Prime amongst these is a Council of Australian Governments backed Sustainability Council with funding and powers akin to the National Competition Council. And additionally showing national leadership, means being held accountable to real and substantial environmental outcomes.
2. Cut greenhouse pollution - not only by ratification of the Kyoto Protocol, but through a package of measures including higher renewable energy targets, revenue neutral emissions trading and a bold attack on our grossly inefficient use of energy.
3. Repair our land and rivers - repair rivers like the Murray with more water flowing down it and turn around the loss of our bushland by ending land clearing. Only then will we stop the curse of salinity poisoning our environment, farms and towns.
4. Protect great natural areas - the Great Barrier Reef, Cape York and the great old growth forests of Tasmania are national treasures future generations won't enjoy unless strong protections are put in place now
5. Support sustainable living - give greater support for Australians wanting to take action to help the environment by, for example, going solar or adding rainwater tanks.

And there can be no sustainable living if Australia is still caught in the toxic nuclear cycle - building new nuclear reactors and creating very long lived radioactive waste.

Today I'm launching a "National Agenda for a Sustainable Australia." which details the damage being done to our ecological infrastructure, Australia's international performance and the policies needed if we are to turn around environmental damage. We're drawing a line in the sand as to what Australians should expect of their governments when it comes to taking adequate care of this country.

A special thanks to the Australian Conservation foundation website for the transcript