The U.S. investment bank Morgan Stanley believes that we have a food crisis. An especially raging summer in the US, droughts and forest fires in countries including Brazil and Russia and heavy rain in Europe and Canada have hit many grain and oilseed crops this year.
Lumber futures rose the maximum permitted by the Chicago Mercantile Exchange on Tuesday, reaching a four month high, as the U.S. disputes the pricing of wood imported from Canada, the biggest foreign supplier reports Bloomberg.
A large fall in greenhouse gas emissions brought about by a reduction of industrial activity led by the economic crisis has put the EU on a fast track to meet its Kyoto commitments, but Austria, Denmark and Italy are falling behind, according to new figures.
Nova Scotia approves NewPage plan to burn trees for power
The Nova Scotia Utility and Review Board has just announced that its approval of the NewPage Port Hawkesbury and Nova Scotia Power's proposal to burn trees to create power.
The voluntary carbon market remains sluggish, hit hard by the global financial crisis and ongoing worldwide recession, but life is flickering in the forest carbon segment.
Voluntary carbon buyers are in the market but taking much longer to carry out their buying programmes knowing they are in a good position to hold out and squeeze prices down, says David Pontis, an emissions broker at Tullet Prebon. Organisations are still offsetting but the market appears to be 70 per cent sellers and 30 per cent buyers currently, Pontis said.
Should Timber Investments Be Part of Your Investment Portfolio?
Timber and timberland have traditionally been investment vehicles for institutional investors because of the amount of capital required. There are however, excellent opportunities in today’s timber and timberland investment marketplace for small retail investors.
Free trade negotiations and a continued commitment to the emissions trading scheme are important to support further forestry sector growth, Prime Minister John Key said.