Hot stock tips from global warming

Friday, 29 June 2007 12:00

Global warming is not just one of the biggest challenges facing the planet, it is an excellent opportunity for investors.

Billions of pounds, dollars and euros are about to be spent to combat climate change - and this could benefit savvy investors as well as the generations to come.

"There are five major market trends that we believe will develop over the next five years that will be a result in climate change," said Mark Woodall, chief executive of Climate Change Capital - an investment banking group specialising in opportunities created by a low carbon economy.

He highlighted these as:

• Consolidation of existing segments such as wind power
  
• Growth of commodities such as bio fuel
  
• The identification of the low-cost countries that will mass produce these technologies
  
• Stop-gap technologies that may not be the ultimate solution but will be in demand in the short to medium term, and
  
• Adaptation technologies, which will help us live in a world altered by climate change.

And ethical funds are exploiting these opportunities.

In the last few years interest in ethical investment has been increasing, Friends Provident reports, especially in the environmental technology sector.

"Ethical investment is very popular right now and there are a lot of people looking to invest in cleaner, greener companies," said Julia Dreblow, socially responsible investment manager at Friends Provident.

In the first four months of 2007, ethical funds sales rose 83 per cent compared with the same time period in 2006, figures from Fidelity Funds Network reveal. If this trend continues sales for 2007 are set to double those of last year.

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