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Native Buyers Return To The European Market
News Posted On: 30 May 2013 After several years in which money from struggling Eurozone countries has been invested in ‘safe haven’ or relatively healthy economies’ property markets, native investors have made major purchases in Sweden and Germany. In Germany, the LEG group, which was floated on the stock market in January, bought 2,200 apartments in Germany namely in North Rhine-Westphalia from a group led by Luxembourg-based fund BGP. LEG said it seeks to add a further 8,000 units. The price details of the deal were not disclosed, but North Rhine-Westphalia ‘has the highest population density in Germany, and it’s a place where people rent their homes,’ according to LEG Chief Executive Officer Thomas Hegel. It’s also the German state with the highest GDP, according to German state data. Meanwhile, Swedish property developer Balder expects to buy three major mixed-use assets in Stockholm, valued at SEK815m, or €95m from Fabege, by buying the companies that own them. The purchase will include the 13,700m2 Skeppshandeln 1 hotel, office and retail project which is already fully let though construction is not thought likely to be completed until the second quarter of 2014. ‘The properties have a considerable focus on hotels, stores and housing units,’ said Fabege’s Director of Business Development Klaus Hansen Vikstrom. However, the story may not be as simple as it appears. When LEG was floated in late January this year, it’s possible that it served as a repository for safe haven investors buying company shares rather than directly investing in property and there was debate as to whether the company’s shares were overvalued compared to its peers or in the light of its portfolio. If this were the case to too great an extent, LEG could be showing the way to a new, pan-European property bubble wherein investors from Eurozone countries with struggling economies move their money to safer, more prosperous Euro members like Germany. This would be a reversal of the trend pre-2008 in which small-scale investors from prosperous Euro countries were induced to invest in property in less prosperous ones like Spain and Ireland. The realization that ‘the resourceful rich just move their money to banks in northern Europe and avoid paying,’ in the words of Professor Peter Bofinger, advisor to Angela Merkel, lies behind a drive in Germany to levy a tax against the rich citizens of Europe’s poorer countries, potentially having a restricing effect on the flow of ‘safe haven’ money. Along with Germany, Sweden is one of Europe’s more prosperous economies. The sale of major properties there may be less significant than the fact that the properties themselves are already let before completion. Compare the situation in Dubai, where major skyscraper projects had to be shelved recently because of a lack of lettings. The Swedish situation at least doesn’t seem to be caused by a reversal of the pre-2008 flow of money. Paradoxically though, Sweden tops the list of countries that may be headed for a property crash, according to German bank Commerzbank. ‘The property booms in Sweden and Finland appear to be nearing their end, and we should soon see a price correction,’ the bank said in a statement in April. Written by Les Calvert – overseas property reporter Continue reading
Time For Europe To Embrace ‘Affordable, Sustainable’ Energy Solutions
Published 29 May 2013 The European Union should embrace new renewable solutions such as gas fermentation technologies to advance towards a low-carbon economy, argues Jennifer Holmgren. Jennifer Holmgren is chief executive of LanzaTech , which has developed a biological fermentation process that transforms industrial waste gases and residues into fuels and chemicals. Pressed by Europe’s economic crisis, EU leaders at a recent summit called for “affordable and sustainable energy” to underpin the EU’s “competitiveness, jobs and growth”. Many see this as wishful thinking, and argue for a relaxation of the club’s ambitious 2020 energy and emissions reduction targets. If the EU is to weather the crisis and emerge stronger and more competitive than ever, energy policies need to be looking resolutely forward, not back. Technologies are advancing faster than the policies designed to harness them. The EU is debating amendments to the Renewable Energy Directive and Fuel Quality Directive to include sustainability criteria. These criteria could help determine whether Europe can indeed meet its 2020 targets. If policies can catch up with science, sustainable energy can fuel Europe’s growth. Researchers in many different fields have made working out the conundrum of affordable and sustainable energy their priority for years now. Their investments are paying off. A number of new technologies are questioning our perceptions of waste for example, by turning greenhouse gases (GHGs) such as carbon monoxide and carbon dioxide into a valuable resource, and the potential is vast and varied. It is part of a growing trend among researchers who say why capture and bury these gases – a technique supported by EU policies– when you can recycle them into valuable commodities? The EU’s 2020 target to source 10% of Europe’s transport fuel from renewables, is reachable by deploying a variety of existing and new technologies, including gas fermentation which captures carbon-rich waste and residues from European manufacturers and recycles it into biofuel in a closed loop system. These processes allow industries not only to reduce their carbon footprint, but moreover to convert this liability into a valuable green commodity, and be at the forefront of a greener, more sustainable economy. This kind of economy supports green growth for industry, preserving and creating jobs across Europe as manufacturers and industry invest in green technologies while maintaining a healthy bottom line. The old argument that a cleaner, greener economy and job-creation are mutually exclusive just doesn’t hold water anymore. Greening a traditional industry by deployment of a gas fermentation facility at a steel plant for example can create 40 to 50 jobs. CleanTech also boosts foreign direct investment, with global supply chain partners and customers ready to finance and build plants in Europe. Furthermore, increased efficiency and reduced dependence on fossil imports reinforce energy security, and help reduce costs. It is crucial that Europe, in its role as global leader in the fight against climate change, embrace these technologies. Looking beyond 2020, they are an important part of the equation if the EU is to meet its commitments to reduce GHGs 95% by 2050. As Commission President José Manuel Barroso said at the summit, however, there is no silver bullet solution. In its drive for a more sustainable economy, Europe needs to assess all technologies over time and not stop with one policy. There is a high risk for policies focusing on one or a few technologies that may not work in the long run or produce unintended consequences in the future. There is a need to de-risk those policies by diversifying but also coordinating the different policies to further support deployment of clean technologies. Many policymakers and researchers have rightly argued that the solution to climate change requires a wide range of measures. Why not expand the concept of renewable energy beyond solar, wind and other means of harnessing the forces of nature? You need carbon to produce liquid fuels and chemicals – and we can source this from wastes and residues from industry in Europe today. Why not look at what up to now has been seen as a burden we’d just like to go away or bury, and see greenhouse gases as an opportunity, as one solution in a complex equation to ensure a more sustainable, growing economy? Continue reading
China Unveils Details Of Pilot Carbon-Trading Programme
Nation’s first trading scheme in the southern city of Shenzhen will cover 638 companies when it begins next month Jonathan Kaiman in Beijing guardian.co.uk, Wednesday 22 May 2013 16.38 BST China has unveiled details of its first pilot carbon-trading programme, which will begin next month in the southern city of Shenzhen. The trading scheme will cover 638 companies responsible for 38% of the city’s total emissions, the Shenzhen branch of the powerful National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) announced on Wednesday. The scheme will eventually expand to include transportation, manufacturing and construction companies. Shenzhen is one of seven designated areas in which the central government plans to roll out experimental carbon trading programmes before 2014. China is the world’s biggest carbon emitter and burns almost as much coal as the rest of the world’s countries combined. Li Yan, Greenpeace east Asia’s climate and energy campaign manager, said that the pilot programmes will inform the central government on how to motivate local authorities to adopt low-carbon policies. The push to reduce carbon emissions coincides with the newly installed leadership’s effort to tackle the country’s dire air pollution problem, which has emerged as a source of widespread anger and frustration in recent months. “Having a mid-term strategy, and trying to prepare years ahead, is actually in line with China’s interests and its political and social priorities,” she said. On Monday, the Chinese newspaper 21st Century Business Herald reported that the NDRC has discussed implementing a national system to control the intensity and volume of carbon emissions by 2020. The agency expects China to reach its carbon emissions peak by 2025, five years earlier than many recent estimates, according to unnamed sources quoted in the article. At a recent climate change meeting, the agency “announced that it’s currently researching and calculating a timetable for the greenhouse gas emissions peak, and will vigorously strive to implement a total emissions control scheme during the ’13th five-year plan’ period (from 2016-2020),” the paper quoted a NDRC official, also unnamed, as saying. “The NDRC is looking for a national cap, but nobody knows exactly when that is going to happen,” said Wu Changhua, greater China director of the Climate Group. “There’s still a lot of work to be done.” The EU’s carbon trading scheme, the world’s largest, has suffered repeated setbacks in recent months. In April, MEPs voted against a proposed reform aimed to raise the price of carbon, which has been diluted by an overabundance of permits. Read the full article at: http://www.guardian….n#ixzz2Uh94cM8l Continue reading
