In the face of partisan priorities the Obama administration has had significant unsung success in taking a more indirect approach to tightening climate change policy, contrary to public perceptions that this agenda has stalled. 

For twenty days in January, toxic smog covered most of the Northern cities of China. Beijing saw peak concentrations of PM2.5(a measurement of fine particle air pollutants that raise the risk of lung and heart diseases) which is forty times the World Health Organisation's acceptable safety levels.

Last week The Times reported that Ofgem, the regulator of the UK's electricity and gas markets, has warned it is time for a 'revolution' in the way people save energy if they are to mitigate soaring utility bills and keep the lights on.  While the UK government prevaricates over the country's future generating capacity and how to fund it, we suggest that investors could focus on the opportunities in global energy efficiency markets. 

The compelling long term drivers for investing in food and agriculture are indisputable. A rising global population (60 million more people to feed every year), coupled with rising affluence in developing markets are driving greater consumption towards higher protein, more grain intensive foods.  According to the UN, this trend, combined with a 13% projected rise in per capita food consumption will require a 70% increase in food production by 2050.

The Chinese Communist Party's unveiling of the new Politburo Standing committee represents a critical leadership transition at a time when China is economically more powerful than ever before.

Five years of FTSE Environmental Markets and welcome to Jack Ehnes, new Chair of FTSE Environmental Markets Committee

Following our first post where I outlined the key data behind our thinking on resource scarcity and resource efficiency I wanted to follow on by describing the main opportunities we see for investors, by sector, and how they can gain exposure to the themes and technologies.  We believe these will outperform in years to come. The drivers are fundamental and long term in nature.

The stability and predictability of water company regulation in the UK by the Water Services Regulation Authority("Ofwat"), which is mandated to ensure value for the end consumer, has been a major contributor to attracting private investment into the sector. Since privatisation in 1989, this stable regulatory framework has enabled sector companies to attract over £108 billion of investment. 

On November 7^th, the American people awoke to find that they had endured 17 months and more than $6 billion worth of the most costly federal election cycle in history.  The result: status quo ex ante.  In the White House, the House of Representatives and the US Senate, the same leadership teams remained in place, and without substantive changes to their legislative margins in the latter two cases.

Welcome to the Impax Blog!   We plan to post short articles here to keep you updated on our thoughts on developments in the rapidly expanding global markets for solutions to resource scarcity.  We will also look in some detail at how we're searching for mis-priced companies that are set to benefit from the long-term trends of changing demographics, rising consumption, limited natural resources and increasing urbanisation.

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