The Copenhagen December 2009 Environmental Summit

Copenhagen – Get Your Pessimism In Early

First Published Date: Oct 24, 2009

In December this year, the Danish capital Copenhagen will play host to the most important environmental summit of the past decade, and the most intensely-awaited since the Kyoto summit of 1997. Kyoto has come in the eyes of many to symbolise the greatest missed opportunity to turn back the tides of environmental damage, as the protocol set down in the agreement which was signed at the end of the summit have failed to be adopted by some of its signatories, and even those who have adopted them have as yet failed to make all of the required adjustments. The hope is that Copenhagen will see the attending administrations make good on the essential failures of Kyoto – but already there is doubt as to how likely that is.

The signs are not good, if you believe the sounds being made after US President Barack Obama spoke at the UN to a one-day summit on Climate issues. Although he was strident in his words, and spoke like the born orator many believe him to be, something was lacking. He gave his commitment to push through cuts in emissions and called for focus from all leaders in trying to bring about a solution to climate change, but his speech was lacking in specifics. If Copenhagen is to achieve anything in terms of driving back climate change, there will need to be a broad consensus before the parties sit down to negotiate. Otherwise, all we can look forward to is “talks about talks” with the likely outcome that another convention will have to be summoned before 2010 is out.

Perhaps unfairly, there has been a lot of criticism directed towards the relatively new American administration in the aftermath of Obama’s speech. Yes, it was light on specifics beyond a reiterated commitment to his existing initiative to cap carbon emissions at a commercial level – but there has been precious little in the way of bright initiatives from anyone else at the same time. A recent, and bold, Australian government bill aimed at cutting emissions has failed to win parliamentary support, and with PM Kevin Rudd threatening to dissolve Parliament and call another election rather than moderate its terms, the picture is one where consensus is going to be hard to find in sole countries let alone worldwide.

It could be that all of this pessimism leads to something good, however. Although the prospects for success at Copenhagen are deemed to be poor, this pessimism may ironically drive the negotiations to be more searching and less posturing. A result from Copenhagen is not impossible until the final days of the conference, and if the leaders show goodwill between now and then a deal is not out of the question. However, the deal has to be right. If all we see is another fudge like Kyoto, we cannot afford to wait another twelve years before we sort that one out. There are two months to go before the politicians begin to sit down. Will they take the chance to work on something meaningful? We can only hope.

To streamline and minimize blog maintenance, I will be discontinuing maintaining the Thegreenlivingblog.com website (however, I will still hold the domain). I will gradually move all articles from this site to A Dawn Journal. This article originally published on the above website on Oct 4, 2009

How To Find New Uses For Old Things

Finding Uses For Things In Your House

First Published Date: November 8, 2014

One of the most important things you can do when you are going green is to reuse what you already have, even before you recycle it. The concept is to reuse, then recycle and by doing this you lower your overall footprint on the environment greatly. It is quite easy to do, and it can save you an immense amount of money in the process. So, how can you reuse, then recycle, items in your home?

First, look at milk containers. The big plastic ones can be used in a number of different ways. First of all, you can use them as flower pots once you have cleaned them out. By doing this, you will have no need to buy flowerpots and you can even decorate these pots any way you wish. Another great use for milk containers is as water cans. Take a plastic milk container, poke several holes in the top of it and fill it with water. Just like that, you have a great water container that will work just as well as one that you buy at the store.

Now, yogurt containers can give you many different things around your home. Whether you have large yogurt containers or small ones, they can be used in a variety of methods.

·    You can use yogurt containers as seed starters because they are very easy to grow things in. This will give you a head start on your spring and summer growing. It also helps make the inside of your home nice and green as the snow melts outside.

·    If you cut out the bottom of the yogurt container, you can then use it to protect the base of your plants outside from insects.

·    If you like to make crafts, you can use yogurt containers to make a variety of things that you can use around the house, or for the children to play with. You can make it something you do with the children when you make cool creatures out of yogurt containers.

·    If you have leftovers, why not store them in yogurt containers rather than buy Tupperware?

·    Got toothbrushes laying around your bathroom? Stick then into a spare yogurt container and help organize things a bit.

Another great thing you can reuse around the house is plastic bags. These are awful things but you can use them to make bags by knitting plastic bags together. You can also use them to keep food fresh, or to serve as water liners in potted plants.

The things in your house can be used for a variety of things and you just have to decide what you want to use them for. Remember, when you reuse something, you are keeping yourself from buying new. That is very important because it helps the environment and when you help the environment, you help everyone. So, just reuse then recycle and you will be doing the world a very big favour.

What Is Your Mutual Fund Actually Costing You

Mutual Fund Fees You Pay

First Published Date: Dec 5, 2008.

These days you will hardly find an investor without having at least one mutual fund. Most of us never pay any attention to mutual fund fees, which can be very confusing and hard to grasp. Many of us do not realize how much of our returns can be evaporated by these fees. I consider one of the best features of mutual funds is that fund companies camouflage fees as a percentage of assets.

There are 3 basic categories of mutual fund fees – management fees which is known as MER, sales fees and special fees. I will discuss the only MER because regardless of what type or class fund you buy, MER is a built-in feature and it will be always there.

MER stands for Management Expense Ratio and expressed as a percentage of fund total value. MER is made of sales, administration, marketing, legal, accounting, reporting and portfolio management costs and charged directly to the fund, thus reducing the value of your investment. You will never see any statement or transaction or invoice or you will never write a check to pay MER as fund companies deduct this cost from funds per unit value every day, making it invisible and hard to track. MERs can run from ?% to over 3% or even more.

Let’s say a fund charges an MER of 2.5% which may sound harmless but when you look at in terms of real numbers, it looks scary and hard to believe. Suppose you have $100,000 in a mutual fund which charges 2.5% MER. Assuming you are 30 and will have this $100,000 invested till you reach 70. How much is your cost? The answer is a whopping cost of $100,000 ($100,000 * 2.5% per year for 40 years) I used very simplified calculations and omitted many other factors.

Remember, there are other costs and taxes to pay as well. Be a smart investor by educating yourself and avoiding fees and expenses. There are a variety of options these days and always do your homework before investing and seek help from someone whom you find knowledgeable and trustworthy.

RBC Launches 5 New ETFs

New Dividend ETFs From RBC

First Published Date: November 16, 2014

RBC Global Asset Management launched 5 new dividend ETFs targeting various sectors in the international markets. These ETFs offer monthly income, along with broad international diversification and reduced foreign currency risk.

Let’s look at these 5 ETFs in brief:

RBC Quant Emerging Markets Dividend Leaders ETF (TSX: RXD, MER: 0.64%) – Holds dividend-paying companies in the emerging markets that have growth potential based on modified cap weighting methodology. The ticker symbol for the US$ version is RXD.u.

RBC Quant European Dividend Leaders ETF (TSX: RPD, MER: 0.49%) – Holds dividend-paying companies in the European markets that have growth potential based on modified cap weighting methodology. RPD is the first European dividend trading on the Canadian stock exchange that is not hedged. The ticker symbol for the US$ version is RPD.u.

The three other ETFs are currency-hedged. These are:

RBC Quant U.S. Dividend Leaders (CAD Hedged) ETF (TSX: RHU)

RBC Quant European Dividend Leaders (CAD Hedged) ETF (TSX: RHP)

RBC Quant EAFE Dividend Leaders (CAD Hedged) ETF (TSX: RHI)

Altogether, there are 8 RBC Quant Dividend Leaders ETFs and 17 total ETFs offered by the RBC Global Asset Management.

How do the fees for these MERs compare? Let’s look at RBC Quant Emerging Markets Dividend Leaders ETF and some other emerging market dividend ETFS. The SPDR® S&P Emerging Markets Dividend ETF charges 0.59% MER, iShares Emerging Markets Dividend ETF charges 0.68%, and HAJ Horizons Active Emerging Markets Dividend ETF charges 0.80 percent. As you can see, RBC’s MER is fairly similar with other ETFs for the same emerging market dividend ETFs.

Always do your research before buying any investment products and seek professional advice if you are not comfortable picking your own.

Barack Obama and Copenhagen Summit

Copenhagen Summit Roundup – Part 3

Published Date: Dec 28, 2009

Many people who followed the United Nations Summit on global climate change are aware that, at the last moments before the conference closed, United States President Barack Obama flew to Copenhagen, Denmark, where the summit was taking place.  However, his actual role is not so well understood.  Did he help the talks?  Or, as many suggest, were his efforts more for show.  Or, perhaps, more realistically, somewhere in between?  Whether or not President Obama’s role had any real and meaningful effect on the Copenhagen Summit probably depends on your perspective and stance on the issue itself.

White House reports coming out of Washington, D.C., state that President Obama’s efforts demonstrate a lofty diplomatic achievement.  Surely, Obama’s speech at the Copenhagen Summit did not mince words as he criticized the lack of a reasonable agreement between the meeting nations.  Perhaps his boldest move was reports that Obama ‘crashed’ a meeting that was occurring between China, Brazil, India and South Africa – four countries that United States representatives had been trying to meet with.  When he noticed that the four countries were meeting, Obama apparently stated something to the effect that, ‘we’ve been wanting to meet with all of these countries, and now here’s our chance.’

Although many concede that the final agreement is far from perfect, journalist and Copenhagen Summit watchers from around the world were pleasantly surprised to hear that, after two weeks of discussions that had basically been stalled, in fact quite stuck, any agreement had been made.  Barack Obama, according to his and the White House public statements is taking credit (albeit according to his own words, Obama admits that his contribution was ‘modest’) for pushing through what many had figured was the impossible; ‘enticing’ China to agree to accountability measures that it had so vigorously resisted.

The final agreement, as noted by climatologists who watched the Copenhagen Summit closely, falls far short of what needs to be done to halt global climate change.  Even so, that point may be mute as several countries are threatening to veto the accord, effectively making it null and void; representatives from Venezuela, Bolivia, Sudan, Saudi Arabia and Nicaragua particularly are incensed that the United States may have forced their, and China’s hand.  If vetoed by those countries, some may, in the end, consider the entire Copenhagen Summit a failure.

Even Barack Obama admits that the long-term picture may be bleak as, to paraphrase his words, ‘by taking one step forward, the frustration and resentment may make us take two steps back.’  Perhaps, however, the bigger step forward was the actual dialogue and contention that all participating nations agree to a transparent process for analyzing progress toward emissions reductions.  Ultimately, only the near future will tell us if the accord will ‘stick,’ and only after decades of living with the ramifications, negative and positive, of the Copenhagen Summit will tell us what the true results of the efforts of key players like U.S. President Barack Obama ultimately played.  Maybe then, Barack Obama can claim he ‘won’ a battle toward reducing global carbon emissions.

To streamline and minimize blog maintenance, I will be discontinuing maintaining the Thegreenlivingblog.com website (however, I will still hold the domain). I will gradually move all articles from this site to A Dawn Journal. This article originally published on the above website on Dec 28, 2009.