Opinion: Ottawa's unrealistic emissions plan could drive away investment - The Globe and Mail

Investment

Opinion: Ottawa's unrealistic emissions plan could drive away investment – The Globe and Mail

Published

2 years ago

August 21, 2022

Harry Miller

An oil & gas pump jack in Alberta on May 6, 2020.Todd Korol/Reuters

Kendall Dilling is President of the Pathways Alliance.

Canada’s oil sands industry recognizes we are one of our country’s largest greenhouse-gas emitters, and that we have a major role to play in helping meet the national climate-change commitment of net-zero emissions by 2050.

We have a plan, which we have shared with the federal government, to reduce emissions by 22 million tonnes by 2030. And we support the larger emission-reduction goals set out by Ottawa.

However, we are concerned about the timelines recently proposed. We can reduce our emissions by 42 per cent from 2019 levels – we have, after all, set a goal of net zero by 2050 – but reaching that as early as 2030 is simply not realistic given current technology, construction and regulatory requirements.

In reality, impractical time frames for emissions-reduction targets could drive investment away from our industry and our country, reducing production in Canada while increasing output and emissions in other countries.

Canada’s six largest oil sands producers formed the Pathways Alliance more than a year ago to pro-actively address oil sands emissions. We have been working constructively with federal and provincial governments on the best way to meet Canada’s 2030 and 2050 emissions-reduction goals.

In fact, plans have already been submitted and field and pre-engineering work is under way to build one of the most comprehensive carbon capture and storage systems in the world.

Further phases of our plan will see the deployment of some of the 80 different technologies and process improvements that Pathways Alliance scientists, engineers and experts are working on to consistently reduce emissions from our facilities.

We see real and ambitious reductions on the immediate (by 2030), midterm (2030-2040) and long-range (2040-2050) horizon as we steadily move toward our net-zero goal.

By investing in technology, we can reduce emissions while ensuring responsibly produced Canadian energy can help meet the world’s energy security needs – replacing oil and gas from such countries as Russia.

Building projects on the scale we are proposing will require regulatory certainty and significant co-investment by industry and government. Up to $20-billion will be needed between now and 2030 for carbon capture and other technologies in the Pathways plan. Our industry is looking for support comparable to what is being provided by governments in other countries with similar plans, such as the Netherlands, Norway and the United States.

Some recent federal policies – especially the Investment Tax Credit (ITC) for carbon capture, utilization and storage (CCUS) announced in the 2022 federal budget – are welcome steps toward these goals.

However, others, such as the recent decision by Environment and Climate Change Canada to prevent lower-carbon oil or fuel intended for export from receiving Clean Fuel Regulation credits, erode the economics of CCUS and run counter to the benefits provided by the ITC.

Today, Canadians are facing higher fuel prices, and our allies are in desperate need of energy to end dependence on unstable regimes. We can’t afford to negatively impact our economy by creating a business environment full of uncertainty and added costs that risk shrinking production of our largest export commodity and one of the biggest contributors to national GDP.

There is already a suite of measures in place to help drive emissions reductions in oil and gas, including carbon pricing, Clean Fuel Regulations and methane regulations. Rather than layering on new regulations, we believe Canada should use rules they already have in place.

We support the federal government’s efforts to make significant emissions reductions by 2030, and its goal of net zero by 2050. However, getting there requires a practical and realistic approach to emissions reduction to protect jobs and investment and help provide global energy security.

We hope Ottawa will continue on a co-operative path with industry to tackle climate change with this in mind.

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Everton search for investment to complete 777 deal – BBC.com

Published

40 mins ago

April 23, 2024

Getty Images

Shamoon Hafez

BBC Sport football news reporter

@ShamoonHafez

2 hours ago

Everton are searching for third-party investment in order to push through a protracted takeover by 777 Partners.

The Miami-based firm agreed a deal to buy the Toffees from majority owner Farhad Moshiri in September, but are yet to gain approval from the Premier League.

On Monday, Bloomberg reported the club’s main financial adviser Deloitte has been seeking fresh funding from sports-focused investors and lenders to get 777’s deal over the line.

BBC Sport has been told this is “standard practice contingency planning” and the process may identify other potential lenders to 777.

Sources close to British-Iranian businessman Moshiri have told BBC Sport they remain “working on completing the deal with 777”.

It is understood there are no other parties waiting in the wings to takeover should the takeover fall through and the focus is fully on 777.

The Americans have so far loaned £180m to Everton for day-to-day operational costs, which will be turned into equity once the deal is completed, but repaying money owed to MSP Sports Capital, whose deal collapsed in August, remains a stumbling block.

777 says it can stump up the £158m that is owed to MSP Sports Capital and once that is settled, it is felt the deal should be completed soon after.

Warren Buffett Predicts 'Bad Ending' for Bitcoin — Is It a Doomed Investment? – Yahoo Finance

Published

2 hours ago

April 23, 2024

NanoStockk / Getty Images

Currently sitting in sixth on Forbes’ Real-Time Billionaires List, Berkshire Hathaway co-founder, chairman and CEO Warren Buffett is a first-rate example of an investor who stuck to his core financial beliefs early in life to become not only a success but a once-in-a-lifetime inspiration to those who followed in his footsteps.

One of the most trusted investors for decades, the 93-year-old Buffett isn’t shy to pontificate on his investment philosophy, which is centered around value investing, buying stocks at less than their intrinsic value and holding them for the long term.

He’s also quite vocal on investments he deems worthless. And one of those is Bitcoin.

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Buffett’s Take on Bitcoin

Over the past decade, it’s been clear that the crypto craze isn’t something Buffett wants any part of. He described Bitcoin as “probably rat poison squared” back in 2018.

“In terms of cryptocurrencies, generally, I can say with almost certainty that they will come to a bad ending,” Buffett said in 2018. And his stance hasn’t wavered since. According to Benzinga, Buffett believes that cryptocurrencies aren’t a viable or valuable investment.

“Now if you told me you own all of the Bitcoin in the world and you offered it to me for $25, I wouldn’t take it because what would I do with it? I’d have to sell it back to you one way or another. It isn’t going to do anything,” Buffett said at the Berkshire Hathaway annual shareholder meeting in 2022.

Although the Oracle of Omaha has his misgivings about the unpredictable investment, does that mean crypto is doomed as an investment? Not necessarily.

For You: 10 Valuable Stocks That Could Be the Next Apple or Amazon

Is Buffett Wrong About Bitcoin?

Bitcoin bulls argue that while it’s not government-issued, cryptocurrency is as fungible, divisible, secure and portable as fiat currency and gold. Because they occupy a digital space, cryptocurrencies are decentralized, scarce and durable. They can last as long as they can be stored.

Crypto boosters continue to predict massive growth in the coin’s value. Earlier this year, SkyBridge Capital founder and former White House director of communications Anthony Scaramucci told reporters that Bitcoin could exceed $170,000 by mid-2025, and Ark Invest CEO Cathie Wood predicts Bitcoin will hit $1.48 million by 2030, according to Fortune.

“They really don’t understand the concept and the whole history of money,” Scaramucci said of crypto critics like Buffett on a recent episode of Jason Raznick’s “The Raz Report.” Because we place a value on “traditional” currency, it is essentially worthless compared with the transparent and trustworthy digital Bitcoin, Scaramucci said.

Currently trading around the $66,000 mark, Bitcoin is up nearly 50% in 2024. This means it’s massively outperforming most indexes this year, including the S&P 500, which is up about 6% in 2024.

Although Berkshire Hathaway has invested heavily in Bitcoin-related Brazilian fintech company Nu Holdings, which has its own cryptocurrency called Nucoin, it’s possible Buffett will never come around fully to crypto, despite its recent surge in value. It’s contrary to the reliable investment strategy that has served him very well for decades.

“The urge to participate in something where it looks like easy money is a human instinct which has been unleashed,” Buffett said. “People love the idea of getting rich quick, and I don’t blame them … It’s so human, and once unleashed you can’t put it back in the bottle.”

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This article originally appeared on GOBankingRates.com: Warren Buffett Predicts ‘Bad Ending’ for Bitcoin — Is It a Doomed Investment?

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Ping An Profit Falls as Market Declines Hurt Investment Returns – BNN Bloomberg

Published

6 hours ago

April 23, 2024

(Bloomberg) — Ping An Insurance (Group) Co.’s profit dropped 4.3% in the first quarter as stock-market declines and falling bond yields eroded investment returns.

Net income fell to 36.7 billion yuan ($5 billion) in the three months ended March 31, from 38.4 billion yuan a year earlier, the Shenzhen-based company said in a filing to the Hong Kong stock exchange Tuesday.

Operating profit, which strips out one-time items and short-term investment volatility, fell 3%.

China’s stock market rout at the start of the year and lower bond yields have weighed on insurers’ investment returns. They hurt profit even as more customers seek to buy savings products. Co-Chief Executive Officer Michael Guo said last month that profitability will recover after a 23% drop in net income last year.

“China’s macroeconomy gradually recovered in the first three months of 2024, but there were still challenges,” the company said in a statement, citing weak domestic demand. “In response to volatile capital markets and declining treasury yields, Ping An continued to pursue long-term returns through cycles via value investing.”

Read More: Ping An Trust Wins First Court Ruling Over Delayed Trust Product

Net investment yield of insurance funds dropped to 3%, the statement said, down from 3.1% a year earlier. Real estate investments fell to 4.2% of the 4.9 trillion yuan portfolio, from 4.6% the year earlier.

The CSI 300 Index slumped as much 7.3% this year through the start of February, before government intervention fueled a rally.

New business value, which gauges the profitability of new life policies sold, rose 21% in the first quarter. That followed a 36% jump last year as the company’s efforts to improve the productivity of life agents started to bear fruit. NBV per agent jumped 56% from a year earlier, the statement said.

Ping An shares rose 3% to HK$33.00 in Hong Kong trading on Tuesday, trimming the year’s loss to 6.7%.

(Updates with company comment in fifth paragraph, more details afterwards)

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