Friday, April 27, 2007

The Carbon Age

After working for months (or was it stalling) the Canadian federal government finally rolled out the details of their air pollution/climate change plan. The main focus was on big businesses which generate about half of the pollution in Canada (for a quick summary see here).

There was lots of interesting points in the plan and everyone is already lining up to say 'it's great' or 'it's horrible.' Some like the 55% reduction target of air pollutants like sulfur dioxide (acid rain), nitrogen oxidizes (smog) and particulate. While others dislike how vague the plan is on reducing carbon dioxide being released into the atmosphere and how Canada will not meet its Kyoto targets.

Perhaps not realizing what they have done, the most important thing the government gave industry was the number: $15/tonne of CO2 tax starting in 2010. You see industry has seen this coming. Despite all the rhetoric to the contrary they have not had their heads in the sand. They have bought studies, funded R&D and attended conferences getting to know their options for CO2 reduction. The biggest problem with all their efforts was the economics. How much was avoiding producing a tonne of CO2 going to be worth? Now they know and now the real work begins.

In the next several months we are going to see two things happen. One a lot of current projects will be canceled since they are no longer economically feasible. The second thing will be a series of announcements on new projects starting up. Why? Well to actually engineer, fabricate and construct most of what the facilities required to clean up the emissions to the new standards will take at least four to five years. The deadline of the first phase is 2012 meaning most of these projects will have to start not six months or year down the road, but NOW.

So in the end, Canada has turned the corner and entered a new age: the carbon age. The old rules are now gone for power generation and oil & gas. The entire economics of any major construction project have just changed overnight. So what is an investor to do?

Well let's follow the money. First you will need lots of engineering for these new projects, so check out any publicly traded engineering firms such as SNC-Lavalin. Then materials to build everything such as steel (from Ispco for example) and concrete. Also there are typically a fair amount of chemicals involved in these processes so you might want to look at Dow Chemical. Then there will be the other big winners of all this: alternative energy production like wind turbines, solar panels, ethanol and biodiesel (there is so many different companies involved in these I'll leave you do your own research). Perhaps the most interesting change of all for potential investments will be the construction of a Canadian carbon credit exchange. Will the public be allowed to trade? Is so will the credits be in high demand or will the market be flooded and have the price crash like it did on the European exchange?

The other issue swirling around all of this is the fact Canada is currently run by a minority government. So if the opposition really dislikes this plan it might trigger an election and drop Canada back into limbo with its climate change plan. Hold on to your seats, this could be an interesting few weeks.

6 comments:

Unknown said...

Legislation like this wouldn't actually be a confidence motion would it?

Tim Stobbs said...

Corey,

If my memory is correct any legislation requiring taxes or spending are automatically a confidence motion. So this would fall under that.

CD

pragmatic said...

Everytime we add new taxes to the oil and gas sector, the consumer will ulitmately take it in the rump through higher costs. I don't know about your area, but in mine, I have not seen sub $1.00 gasoline in months.

You're right in that we're in a new "Carbon Age". We will continue to see that energy prices will escalate, despite alternatives. Solar panels will not power your average car, or airplane. Alternative fuels are questionable in efficiency and are already causing food price inflation (grains...look at corn prices).

Energy is the place to be for the next decade because everyone wants cheap energy, but no one wants to take the pain of having cheap energy.

Anonymous said...

wow - that post was riveting. The topic may be worthy of its own blog, dedicated to chronicling how this plays out. Thanks for bringing me up to speed.

Anonymous said...

hey CD,

$15/tonne..

I think the government should help the public understand what a tonne of emission is...
Quite frankly, I can't imagine a tonne of carbon being generated by my car, but I guess it does..

Are there stats or definitions or pictures as to makes up a tonne of carbon?

Tim Stobbs said...

Pragmatic,

Yes we have to pay more for our energy to reflect the true cost of what is involved in using that energy. (BTW, gas has been over a $1 here too for a long time).

Nancy,

Not a bad idea. Too bad I don't have the time to take on a second blog unless I cut back on this one.

Monty,

To help you out with what a tonne is see this link.

https://www.cleanairpass.com/cap/store/products.jsf

It will let you know how many tonnes of CO2 you putting into the air every year with your car. My car was 2.6 tonnes/year.

CD