Insurers in the USA, Germany and Switzerland say a pledge announced last week at a meeting of the world’s biggest polluters to limit global temperatures is essential to controlling the cost of protecting property. Munich Re, the biggest reinsurer, and Zurich Financial Services AG back the target set by the European Union, the USA and 15 more nations to hold the planet to within 2 degrees Celsius (3.6 Fahrenheit) of pre-industrial times.
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Since the New Bull began its charge on March 9, clean energy stocks have put together a mighty rally of their own, as they outpaced the US equities market as a whole. Savvy market observers believe that it reflects the benefits of being on the right side of political trends, thanks to initiatives from China, the United States and other countries. Three major indexes tracking green energy companies have risen sharply of late. The US -only Wilderhill Clean Energy Index, comprising 51 companies, is up 72% since the March 9 low. Its global counterpart, the Wilderhill New Energy Global Index, which tracks 88 companies in 21 countries, is up 66% in the same period. The CleanTech Index, which tracks a broader group, including industries like sustainable agriculture, is up 57%. By comparison, the S&P 500 is up 35% since hitting a 12-year low on March 9. The Green stocks are recovery mode have being hammered on demand concerns brought on by the drop in the price of Crude Oil and the credit freeze, the Wilderhill indexes plunged 70%, and the Cleantech Index 50 %, in 2008. The indexes are still off 2007 peaks.
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The United States is making a serious effort to increase the amount of electricity that’s generated by wind turbines grouped into wind-power “farms.” Attempts to harness the wind are part of a broader national, and global, commitment to “green” energy sources as a way of reducing dependence on Crude Oil and other fossil fuels for power generation. i.e Natural Gas and Coal. Other power sources include solar, geothermal, hydroelectric and nuclear for commercial electricity production, while automakers are looking at new types of batteries and such innovations as power-storing “fuel cells” as alternatives to the conventional internal combustion engines that power most of the world’s cars and trucks. The objectives are twofold. By decreasing the US reliance on foreign Crude Oil, the country is hedging against the time when global supplies of the “black gold” begin to dry up, an eventuality that will propel the prices of crude and gasoline skyward. Diversifying away from Crude Oil and, perhaps, even coal is also a way of reversing, or slowing, environmentally ruinous global warming. US President Barack Obama is attempting to use the ongoing financial crisis to create a sense of urgency about America’s energy future, a challenge that no prior administration has yet been able to meet. About one-third of President Obama’s US$800B + stimulus package will go to infrastructure, with US$30B allocated for US roads and highways and another US$10B earmarked for railways and mass-transit systems. President Obama has also proposed spending US$150 B “over the next 10 yrs to catalyze private efforts to build a clean energy future.” The administration also proposes to increase the amount of electricity that comes from renewable resources from 10% in 2012 to 25% by 2025 as reported in January 2008 in the WS-J.
Popularity: 2% [?]
