Energy Secretary Ed Davey Insists UK Will Meet Its Carbon Emission Reduction Targets

By Tsveta Zikolova

Energy and Climate Change Secretary Ed Davey has today called on energy ministers from around the world to step up efforts to make "the business case for going green," meaning to boost renewable energy, sustainability and carbon credit investments in the private sector. Regardless of environmental experts' warnings, Davey insists that meeting UK carbon emission reduction targets is possible. Opening the Clean Energy Ministerial in London, Davey told the audience of more than 20 energy ministers from the world's leading economies that governments should work more closely with businesses to drive the necessary investments for low-carbon, sustainable future.

The meeting has brought together energy ministers from 23 countries, including Brazil, China, India, Russia and US, who are seeking solutions for power sources that do not fuel climate change. The UK government hopes the two-day gathering will enable them to "showcase" what it is doing to promote energy efficiency and low-carbon development. In the context of the summit, the UK government is also expected to announce a series of agreements on clean technology development with Brazil, Germany, South Korea and the United States. This comes in line with the International Energy Agency (IEA) recommendation for ministers at the summit to help create a level playing field for all clean energy technologies, accelerate clean energy research and support energy efficiency and carbon credit investments. These are necessary measures in order governments to meet their 2020 carbon emission reduction targets.

With many clean energy technologies available, but not being deployed quickly enough to avert potentially disastrous consequences, the world's energy system is being pushed to breaking point. IEA warned that governments were failing to deploy available clean energy technologies quickly enough to avert "disastrous" climate change of up to 6C by the end of the century. In response Davey said that he expects the UK to meet its target of sourcing 30 per cent of all electricity from renewable sources by 2020, with the "clean energy" sector having attracted nearly £5bn in private investment last year. "We started off from a very low base. When we came to government, we were right at the bottom of the league," he said. "But we really have now begun to turn that round and we are moving fast".

Despite his positive expectations, citing recent research from Bloomberg New Energy Finance, that was presented to ministers, Davey warned that clean energy and carbon credit investments during the first quarter of this year fell and urged governments to step up attempts to drive private sector investment in the sector. Davey urged governments to create the right frameworks for low-carbon investment to encourage private financing as states do not have the balance sheet to fully support clean energy growth.

Every day that goes by without action means higher costs down the road. Fortunately, the ministers gathering this week in London have the power to encourage clean energy and carbon credit investments, innovations and reforms. Hopefully the governments worldwide will act to seize the security, economic and environmental benefits clean energy transition can bring.

Investing in Forestry, Energy Efficiency Among Priority Sectors for New Russia-China Fund

By Tonka Dobrev

Igor Shuvalov, first deputy Prime Minister of Russia and Li Keqiang, executive vice-premier of the State Council of China, announced at the recent China-Russia Investment and Trade Forum that the two countries will be launching a joint Investment Fund in the summer of 2012. Kirill Dmitriev, CEO of the Russian Direct Investment Fund (RDIF), said in a press release that the Russia-China Fund is expected to receive initial capital in the amount of $4 billion. The China Investment Corporation (CIC) and the RDIF are to contribute $1 billion each, and the remaining $2 billion will come from other Chinese institutional investors. The launch date of the Fund is planned for the end of June.

The Fund's capital will be managed by a designated company, which is in the process of being established. The founders of the management company are the RDIF and the CIC. The former stakeholder will control 60 percent of ownership while the latter will take on 40 percent. Most key executives at the Fund management company will be nominated by the RDIF. The Russian investment corporation is also expected to take the lead on most of the project selection process, including overseeing project research, analysis and evaluation.

In terms of geographic location of the investments, as much as 70 percent of the Fund's capital will be invested in projects and businesses in Russia and other Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS).

"The Russian economy might see hundreds of millions of dollars in joint investments from Russia and China as early as the end of 2012," promised Dmitriev.

The remaining 30 percent will be allocated to Chinese businesses and projects that also have Russian involvement.

Investing in forestryand timber, engineering, transportation, agriculture and logistics are the sectors that top the list of investment priorities for the Fund. Dmitriev also noted that special attention will be paid to energy saving and energy efficiency initiatives.

For China, investing in forestry initiatives domestically can offer particularly appealing business opportunities. According to the latest Global Tree Farm Economics Reviewpublished by RISI, a US information provider for the global forest products industry,China's imports of logs, lumber, woodchips and pulp hit record highs in 2011. At the same time the country's timber supply deficit increased by more than 30 percent, reaching an estimated 152 million cubic metres.

In addition, the authors of the Review noted that increased forestry preservation efforts worldwide have led global timber markets to become overly dependent on man-made forestry plantations and tree farms. This means planted forestry is likely to enjoy increased attention from private and public decision makers in the foreseeable future.

By using portion of the joint Fund's capital for investing in forestry projects and growing sustainable timber in China, investors can not only capitalise on meeting the demand deficit at home, but can also cash in on timber sales globally. Moreover, timber investments have proven to be a smart choice especially in challenging economic times. The value of timber products has historically risen above global inflation and timber has been the only asset class in existence to have risen during three out of the four market collapses of the 20th century.

A First, And Last, Hurrah For Dividends?

By Larry M. Elkin

Corporations are pulling out their checkbooks and paying shareholder dividends at the fastest pace in years, putting money in the hands of investors who can use it for debt repayment, holiday presents or anything else they choose.

Enjoy it while it lasts. This happy state of affairs, so long in coming, may not go on much longer.

For most of the past two decades dividends were largely ignored. Money managers and their clients focused on share price appreciation, which historically has been the larger component of a stock's total return (the sum of price appreciation and dividend payments). But price appreciation has been hard to come by during the largely flatlined decade since the dot-com bust.

Bloomberg reported this week that corporations are paying special dividends, on top of their regular quarterly distributions, at four times last year's pace. Commerce Bancshares Inc. reported a lot of happy shareholder feedback in the wake of its $1.50 per share payment in early November. IDT, a telecommunications company in New Jersey, pulled planned dividends from 2013 into 2012. (1) Across the board, companies are giving excess capital back to shareholders. Other companies, including Apple as of earlier this year, have instituted regular quarterly dividends or have raised their payout rates.

It would be nice to think that companies are trying to share the success of the business with its owners, or enabling shareholders to take advantage of more promising investment opportunities elsewhere. However, what we are seeing is mainly a temporary burst of payments to take to take advantage of the current tax law, under which dividend income is taxed at 15 percent.

If President Obama gets his way and tax rates on dividends rise sharply, it seems likely corporate payouts will dry up again. Not only will Americans lose this source of income on their savings and investments - and income is something they can't get on their savings almost anywhere else these days - but corporations that cannot return cash to their shareholders effectively will look for other places to deploy it. Many of those places will be overseas.

Instead of collecting more tax on dividends after rates go up, the government is likely to end up collecting less, since there will be less money distributed as dividends to tax.

Dividends that qualify for the current 15 percent federal rate (lower for some taxpayers) represent business income that is taxed twice. The first tax is paid by the corporation itself, at rates up to 35 percent. With the government taking 35 cents of every dollar of profit, dividends must be paid from the 65 cents left over.

Apply a 15 percent federal tax rate to the shareholder who receives the dividend, and the total tax bite is about 45 cents of every dollar of profit. Additional taxes in many states take even more. And that is under the current system, which Obama and fellow Democrats see as unfairly biased toward the wealthy.

Under the president's proposal, the top individual tax rate on dividends would rise to 39.6 percent, plus the additional 3.8 percent tax to support Medicare that takes effect next year. Thus, Uncle Sam could claim more than 43 percent of the 65-cent share of corporate profits that shareholders receive as a dividend. Add something for state taxes, and the total tax bite on dividends for shareholders rises to around 50 percent, more or less.

The net result: Federal and state taxes would consume around two-thirds of every dollar of corporate profits that is distributed to shareholders. Business owners would get to spend only the one-third that remains.

This will be an enormous deterrent to paying dividends at all, and it explains the rush to pay dividends before rates rise. As David M. DeSonier, a senior vice president at Leggett & Platt, a diversified manufacturer based in Missouri, told The New York Times, "If we can help our shareholders avoid taxes and keep more of their dividends, we'll do it." (2) Leggett & Platt moved its fourth-quarter dividend payments from January to December to be sure its shareholders locked in the 15 percent rate.

There is an alternative tax scenario that Democrats might accept and that would still encourage corporations to pay their shareholders. We ought to let corporations deduct dividend payments, just as they now deduct interest on capital that they raise by incurring debt. This would eliminate the double taxation on income that is distributed to shareholders, while income retained in the corporation would continue to be taxed at corporate rates. If we eliminate double taxation on dividends, it becomes easier to justify applying to top individual income tax rate to dividends that shareholders receive, rather than a preferential rate, such as the current 15 percent.

I hope something sensible, maybe along these lines, emerges from the fiscal negotiations that are just getting underway. Otherwise, the efforts toward fiscal responsibility and tax fairness may easily backfire and send American capital overseas in search of more fertile places to work.

Sources:

1) Bloomberg, "Special Dividends Surge Fourfold as U.S. Tax Increase Looms"

2) The New York Times, "Investors Rush to Beat Threat of Higher Taxes"

For more articles, please visit the Palisades Hudson Financial Group LLC newsletter or subscribe to the blog.

Three Ways to Invest

By Raymond Dominick

There are many concepts and techniques for investing in the markets, but in a sense they come down to three basics concepts: conservative investments, aggressive investments or simply, safe investing.

Most folks will say that conservative investing means not taking any chances as you grow your portfolio very slowly over time.

At the same time, aggressive investing would seem to mean taking risks and possibly losing money while in the process of building the value of your investments.

Safe investing is most often confused as being strictly another way of saying conservative investing. This is a major mistake. In fact your key to successful investing should revolve around investing safely.

The keys to safe investing apply to all purposes for investing, including:

• Managing a retirement account

• Building wealth

• Growing an education account

The principles revolve around a few basic concepts that can be implemented by anyone and most easily if you are using investment software. The concepts and the features to look for in an investment software program include:

• Market Exit signal

• Analysis of a ticker symbol (stock, ETF or fund) in comparison to others and to the market as a whole

• Buy/Sell signals

• Charts for visual verification

• Back testing to find the best strategies

The value of a Market Exit signal may sound obvious but one based on facts versus headlines or gut feelings will tell you not just when to sell and move your money to safety in either a money market or bond fund (or bond ETF) but just as importantly the signal will also tell you when it is time to jump back in. Many people missed the signal for when to get back into the market when the recent recession was ending and missed substantial gains. Of course those who followed a Market Exit signal avoided major losses when the recession began.

Charts are great is showing you trends and can even be used to analyze a particular ticker symbol. But by performing analysis, especially a type of relative strength momentum such as alpha, you can not only know how a symbol may perform but how it compares to others and to the stock market itself.

Buy/Sell signals based on different criteria such as when a symbol starts to decline as compared to both itself and others can trigger a sell signal and a complimentary buy signal for another symbol that is moving up.

The ability to back test a group of funds or ETFs to find the best set of buy/sell rules and when to use a Market Exit signal will result in investment strategies that will lead you not just to safe investing but to safe and profitable investing.

Author Raymond Dominick is the designer of Dynamic Investor Pro investment software for stocks, ETFs and mutual funds. He has been investing in the markets since his teenage years. An experienced business manager and journalist, he is a former registered investment advisor representative, also a professional photographer who loves escaping to the wonders of Glacier National Park in Montana.
View his software at: http://www.dynamicinvestorpro.com

Why Choosing the Right Broker Is Essential for Binary Options Trading

By M. James Dickens

The thought of binary options trading can make you salivate at the extent of money you can earn. Provided, and it is a big "provided", you win. In order to profit you must have the requisites. These are: knowledge, tools, experience, and funds and of course the right broker.

Sound Technical Side and Support

Do not be influenced by percentage of brokerage, proximity or other factors. When you start trading, choose the right broker because a lot will depend on him for your success. Prompt services and sophisticated trading platforms are necessary. In addition to the basics, the right broker will provide excellent connectivity and handle all technical issues within a safe trading environment. You need to move with lightning speed to take advantage of an opportunity and if, at this critical moment, you have connectivity issues, you lose the chance. Further, expect the broker to give detailed information on all traded stocks, commodities and currencies as also a window to live external factors impacting global trade decisions. It is also a given that the broker you choose should have a safe and convenient money depositing and withdrawal system in place.

Learning Resources

It takes much effort, time and money to develop and deploy educational resources that target newbie to experienced professional. Choose a broker who has the resources to deploy fresh content all the time based on in-depth research. The text and multimedia based informational content will keep you abreast of latest developments and trends as also educate you on trading strategies as you refine your skills. Choose a broker who goes out of his way to "break in" newbie to the binary options trading process through learning and demo trading accounts. An established broker should have a huge archive full of knowledge resources a newbie can access to learn the techniques and for established traders to refresh their knowledge base. Brokers know how newbie operate and will usually have "template" style predetermined trading strategies and automation to increase chances of profits and to minimize risks.

Reliability and Trust

If you are in the starting stages, you will tend to rely entirely on what a broker suggests or recommends and as such it becomes all the more important to have a broker who is concerned about his clients. Expert suggestions and right guidance help build reliability and trust for a long-term arrangement. Such brokers may offer additional support and you can seek clarifications through online chats or in the forums.

You should be happy paying higher brokerage or service charges if you come across such a broker.

IntelliTraders is a free Binary options trading community to help traders to learn and start trading with best brokers.

Importance of Binary Options Trading Tools

By M. James Dickens

The digital binary is "0" or "1". Binary options' trading mimics the digital with a full pay off if the option is in money and if below the designated value, the trader gets nothing. The returns, if you are in the positive, are huge and this makes binary options tempting. However, approaching it without knowing how it works and underlying technical details is like casting your line on the waters in the hope of hooking something. At the very least, you need to have knowledge base, money and if you are smart, some of the trading tools. Inherently complicated due to the details, a newbie may feel lost in the terminology.

Technical Analysis

Start with technical analysis. Charts, trends, signs of breakouts, volumes traded and amounts traded can be charted and used as tools to help you make a decision.

Charts, Indicators

Technical things and fundamentals each are involved and have many variables you have to integrate in order to come up with an informed decision leading you to profit. If you do not have a full grasp of those two, you can turn to charts and indicators. Your broker's websites or independent websites will give you access to charts and explanations to help you be productive in a short time.

Reading, E-Books and Signals

There is no substitute for knowledge you gain through reading, whether it is printed books or e-books. Before you explore complex e-books available online, it helps if you have a thorough understanding of trading terminology otherwise even expert's advice would go over your head. Meanwhile, you can use the experts' advice in e-books and follow signals to make interim profits.

Binary Options Trading Tools

Technicalities and fundamentals give you competence to trade in stocks, currencies and commodities. A shortcut to success in binary options is to opt for binary options trading tools. Complex yet highly targeted, they save valuable time and indicators tell you what needs to be done. These tools give you access to historical data and also channel live information in real-time. You will find that indicators can become your chief guiding tool in binary options.

As you proceed from the simple to the advanced there is increasing complexity and the variables can confuse you to a large extent. Knowledge gives you clarity of thought and experience shows you the way. Combine the two with effective binary options trading tools to come out winning-most of the time.

IntelliTraders is a free Binary options trading community to help traders to learn and start trading with best brokers.

Binary Options Trading Facts to Keep In Mind

By M. James Dickens

In binary options trading, as in stock or forex, a sound knowledge of technical aspects and understanding of fundamentals as well as what is going on around you, makes you an informed and productive trader. Knowledge helps and the more you have of it, the better. What complicates binary options trading is the number of variables. Technicalities may give you signals but then these are never 100% proved right. All said and done, knowledge can never be enough. The more you know, the better you can be at achieving accuracy in predicting movements and thus gaining instead of losing.

Learn

Think of your money as your fingers. Would you be happy if you lost one? In Binary Options trading, haphazard and guesswork based trading leads to losses. You can take the long route and learn all about charting, trends, averages, volumes, breakouts and other technical aspects while trying to understand fundamentals and global political, weather and other occurrences as factors that might influence markets. On the other hand, you could log on to a broker's website where you can learn or simply gain tips to profit in the short-term even as you pursue acquisition of knowledge.

The Broker

The journey starts with the choice of a binary options broker. Top brokers usually offer the standard trading platform, reasonable brokerage and timely payouts plus research based facts and guidance. Brokers earn regardless of whether you gain or lose but a caring broker does his bit to educating you so you end up winning.

Dry Runs

Try demo or practice or dummy binary options trade before you commit money. Maintain a log of your decisions and outcomes along with notes on the causes and effects and you will know where you stand and whether you are ready to commit money.

Swim with the Tide

Subscribe to services of "experts" who give you signals and help you profit. However, the variables are so many that even their signals can be distorted. You swim with the tide and sink. If you spend hours studying and understanding market movements, you know exactly where it is going and when to be wary of following the herd. Remember, it is a system where a few are manipulating the herd.

Spice it up

Dummy runs can be fine but once you have learnt enough to be of practical use, take it to the next level by committing money. Unless there is risk you will not act responsibly. The gains or losses can spur you to keep on learning. More is never enough in binary options trading.

IntelliTraders is a free Binary options trading community to help traders to learn and start trading with best brokers.