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Climate Change

Article Index

How to Profit from the Paris Talks - No Matter What Politicians Say About Climate Change

By , Chief Investment Strategist, Money Map Report -

how to double your money

More than 30,000 diplomats have converged on Paris, France, for what is being called "one of the most important international conferences in history."

"Tackling climate change is a shared mission for mankind," said Chinese President Xi Jinping, the head of the world's largest carbon emitter. "All eyes are now on Paris."

"If we act here, if we act now," President Obama added, "if we place our short-term interests behind the air our young people will breathe... then we won't be too late for them."

"Here in Paris," French President Hollande declared, "we will decide on the very future of the planet."

Perhaps I'm too skeptical for my own good, but that's very similar to what world leaders said in 1997 just before the Kyoto Accords. And those have proven to be little more than lip service.

Even if 100% of the Kyoto requirements are followed by 100% of the 192 countries that signed them, they will deliver less than 0.02° Celsius in cooling by 2050 despite costing hundreds of billions of dollars.

Is that worth it?

I have no idea - I'm not a scientific expert.

But I do know beyond any shadow of a doubt that trillions of dollars are going to get set in motion no matter what happens in La Ville Lumière.

Here's what that means for your money and how you can cash in...

These Global Construction Stocks Can Make You – and Your Grandchildren – Rich

By , Managing Editor, Money Morning -

There are engineering projects and then there are generational engineering projects.

A supertall skyscraper like Dubai's Burj Khalifa or New York City's One World Trade Center may take six or eight years from beginning of construction to topping it out. Contracts to construct buildings like these can bring significant revenues to the companies who land the jobs.

Then there are even bigger projects, huge infrastructure investments that have the tendency to alter the destiny of nations over the course of generations. Some of these projects are designed to be worked on and expanded indefinitely.

The challenges that changing climate and demographics pose will bring about a wave of these mega-projects around the world, most of which will take at least a generation to complete, and in many cases, far beyond that.

When they're finished, the face of the planet will be changed, hundreds of millions of people will be affected - for the better. And investors with the foresight to get in on the ground floor could end up being very rich.

The Delta Works

The Dutch have battled the North Sea and their rivers for centuries, keeping the water out, and claiming living space for their small, densely populated, low-lying country. Much of Western Europe drains into the Netherlands' meandering river system. Between the sea and the rivers, the country is in a watery squeeze, but it's more than holding its own.

Most of the Netherlands' territory has been claimed from the sea, two-thirds of its citizens live below sea level, and more than half the country lies at 1 meter or less below sea level.

After a disastrous flood in 1953 killed thousands and inundated more than 9% of their total farmland, the Dutch realized that a long-term solution was needed.

The Delta Commission, was formed, and afterward conceived of a mega-project under the omnibus Deltaplan, comprising a huge network of dams, bridges, sluices, locks, dikes, and storm surge barriers erected all over the soggy Rijn, Maas, and Scheldt deltas in the northwest of the country.

More than 50 years on, the system has worked with typical Dutch efficiency and effectiveness, but it's not truly "complete" yet.

To continue reading, please click here...

Hot Stocks: OGE Energy Corp. (NYSE: OGE) Is Electrifying Investors' Portfolios

By , Contributing Writer, Money Morning -

Utilities have been red-hot in the past month, as subscribers to my private advisory service - The Strategic Advantage - have earned double-digit profits on power generators from Vermont to Arizona.
Let's take a look at one of my favorites now: OGE Energy Corp. (NYSE: OGE), the parent company of electric utility Oklahoma Gas and Electric Co. and natural gas pipeline operator Enogex LLC.
OGE exemplifies our summer theme: Low-risk asset growth, stable earnings and rising dividends. The stock has performed very well for us - it's up more than 11% this month. OGE also pays a 3.7% dividend.

We've talked a lot about utilities, but it is hard to overstate their importance. Businesses need electricity to run production lines, operate computer servers, manage inventory, and light buildings. A power outage that only lasts a few minutes can cost a business thousands of dollars, because machines need to be readjusted so that products can be correctly assembled.

Oklahoma Gas and Electric is the utility unit of OGE and provides electricity to nearly 800,000 customers in Oklahoma and western Arkansas. It is a sizeable utility with $3.14 billion in annual sales and a $3.83 billion market cap. OGE mainly generates electricity from natural gas because the utility receives excellent distribution rates from Enogex.

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The End of the Cap-and-Trade Masquerade Opens New Doors For Investors

By , Global Investing Specialist, Money Morning -

When U.S. Sen. Harry Reid, D-NV, last week disclosed that the so-called "cap-and-trade' energy proposal that passed the U.S. House of Representatives last year would not be taken up by the Senate, climate-bill proponents were deeply dismayed.

Indeed, Financial Times columnist Clive Crook even said that the United States "has let the world down on climate."

But here's the irony. With the Senate's refusal, we may just have moved a step closer to a climate change policy that will actually work. And that's good news for U.S. taxpayers. And it opens new doors for U.S. investors.

To see the sectors that will benefit from the likely direction of climate reform, please read on...

Copenhagen Talks Getting Back on Track, but China May Not Climb Aboard

By , Managing Editor, Money Morning -

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton yesterday (Thursday) broke a major deadlock in negotiations at the United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP15) in Copenhagen, but China's aversion to transparency could keep a deal from being brokered.

For months developing countries have blamed the lack of a cohesive global response to climate change on the unwillingness of the world's richer nations to help finance green projects.

However, that all changed yesterday when Clinton said the United States would be willing to support a $100 billion fund to help emerging countries finance green energy initiatives.

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Copenhagen Climate Summit Could Reshape the Investment Landscape

By , Managing Editor, Money Morning -

Leaders and policymakers from nearly 200 nations yesterday (Monday) commenced an 11-day summit in which they will attempt to hammer out some details of a carbon treaty that could have significant impact on businesses and investment.

The Copenhagen summit aims to put finer points on what, up to this point, have been dull notions about how to respond to global climate change. World leaders from both wealthy and developing countries will attempt to set new carbon emissions goals, outline a timetable for achieving those goals, and detail on how they will be financed.

Some analysts are skeptical that such an immense undertaking will be met with success. Emerging and developed nations have clashed in the past, as poorer nations contend that climate change is a problem wrought by industrialized countries. Industrialized nations, they argue, should therefore be held to higher standards and offer financing to emerging markets that are ill equipped to deal with reform.

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Will Global Warming Alarmism Disappear Like the Hula-Hoop?

By , Global Investing Specialist, Money Morning -

The entire world is waiting for a worldwide agreement to emerge from the Copenhagen summit on global warming in December. Such an agreement would include regulations that change the way we do business for the next two decades. There's just one problem. Are we absolutely sure that our enthusiasm for this battle will remain constant […]

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