By Lisa Twaronite
Against Thursday's bright backdrop for Asian equities markets,
some analysts are expecting the upcoming United Nations Climate
Change Conference in Copenhagen to give certain green shares a new
shine.
"The likelihood is increasing for our controversial thesis of a
Copenhagen rally," Macquarie Securities analysts wrote in a recent
report.
"We anticipate a rally in share prices of renewable energy and
cleaner-utility stocks, sparked by cooperation and commitments in
principle by member countries" at the upcoming climate meeting,
they said.
The meeting to address global warming and emissions reductions
will be held Dec. 7-18 in the Danish capital, and will be attended
by leaders including U.S. President Barack Obama and Chinese
Premier Wen Jiabao.
Initially, the meeting aimed to set a new global agreement on
climate change to update the 1997 Kyoto Protocol, which is due to
expire in 2012. But last month, the goal of a new comprehensive
pact was postponed, and leaders now hope merely to reach a less
specific "politically binding" agreement.
Last week, China set its first targets designed to slow
carbon-dioxide emissions by the end of the next decade. The State
Council, China's Cabinet, said the nation is planning by the end of
2020 to cut carbon emissions per unit of gross domestic product by
between 40% and 45% of their 2005 levels.
China will also put major efforts into developing renewable and
nuclear energies, with the goal that about 15% of the nation's
total power consumption will come from these sources by the target
date.
"China's targets may not be high enough to satisfy European and
U.S. negotiators who indicated that anything below 50% would be
less ambitious than present efforts to improve energy efficiency,"
said the Macquarie report, which was co-written by analysts
Nicholas Teo, Shai Hill, Adam Worthington, Carol Cao, Kelly
Dougherty and Michael Carmody.
Asian names to watch
"For the Copenhagen rally, stocks we recommend to go long
include clean power and gas stocks," they said, naming Xinao Gas
Holdings Ltd. (XNGSY) and wind-power company China High Speed
Transmission Group Co. (0658.HK), as well as Indonesia's
state-owned gas and energy company Perusahaan Gas Negara
(PPAAY)(PGAS.JK) and British energy company BG Group Plc
(BRGXF).
The Macquarie analysts didn't include any Tokyo stocks on their
list, but analysts here have been paying attention to Japan Wind
Development Co. , which some have said could benefit from the new
government's emphasis on seeking green solutions and alternative
energy sources.
Japanese Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama has declared a goal of
bringing down Japanese emissions of greenhouse gases to 25% below
1990 levels by 2020
On Thursday, Japan Wind Development was up 1.8%. The benchmark
Nikkei 225 Average was up 2.8%, and the broader Topix 1000 index
was up 2.7%.
Most other Asian markets were also higher, with South Korea's
Kospi up 0.6%, and Australia's S&P/ASX 200 edging up less than
0.1%.
Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index was up 0.5%, but the Shanghai
Composite slipped 0.4%.