NEW YORK, NY — Heightened support from the Obama Administration and the new Congress on environmental issues, strong green elements in the proposed stimulus and anticipated regulatory changes are fueling optimism for green investment, according to Allianz Global Investors.
That's the assessment of results from the latest survey of American investors for the asset management firm, which says Amercians see a "golden age" coming for green investing.
In addition to expecting broad policy change from Washington, D.C., investors are increasingly perceiving firms that seek to address environmental issues as strong investment opportunities, the company said.
"The need for pollution control, clean water and energy efficiency is not going away," Brian Gaffney, managing director and CEO of Allianz Global Investors Distributors, said in a statement. "Investors perceive there is real opportunity here and they want to capitalize on it."
Gaffney said investors' positive outlook on the environmental technology sector reflects their perception of the area as a long-term opportunity. "Investors understand that robust demand for innovation and solutions will fuel growth, and consequently profits, for years to come," he said.
The survey found:
• 78 percent of investors believe that the Obama Administration in its first year will produce more policy promoting business investment in the environment than the Bush Administration produced during its entire tenure
• 74 percent believe that the new Congress will more strongly support policy promoting business investment in environmental technology
• 97 percent believe that exploring alternative fuel sources remains important despite declining gas prices
• 91 percent believe that resolving environmental problems will be a major issue for years
• 69 percent consider it important to look at investing in companies that capitalize on addressing those problems.
• 78 percent say environmental technology has the potential to be the "next great American industry," and 64 percent considered the sector to be the "most desirable" investment opportunity among 10 categories surveyed
• 72 percent contend that plunging stock prices have had no effect on their inclination to invest in environmental stocks
• 48 percent say they are "at least somewhat likely" to invest in environmental companies this year
• 22 percent in 2008 made investments in firms capitalizing in environmental trends compared to the 17 percent who reported doing so in 2007
The survey also found that 52 percent believe the Dow Jones Industrial Average will be higher a year from now than it is today. And 58 percent of the respondents said they think Europe is ahead of the U.S. in trying to tackle the problems — an aspect that could spur investors' interests in American firms engaged in environmental issues.
The survey polled 1,264 adults from December 12 to 19, 2008. GfK Roper Public Affairs & Media, a division of GfK Custom Research North America, conducted the survey over the Internet for Allianz Global Investors.
Participants were required to be at least 25 years old and have primary or shared responsibility for investment decisions in households with financial assets of at least $100,000. The survey conducted December 14-20, 2007 tallied responses from 1,003 completed interviews.
Change has come
to America after 8 long years of head in the sand leadership. We can only hope the mistakes of this train wreck can eventually be untangled and repaired without permanent breaking of our planet and collective grassroots desire to yet achieve a sustainable way of life on it.
green expert
with a complete failure for 8 yrs and vp chaney
changing,eleminating climate change research the bush administration specifically vp chaney will be held accountable to the metric ton for falsfying data on climate change.
and when chaney dies there will not be 4 presidents at
chaneys funeral what will have is the cost of chaneys actions in metric tons and dollars for his failure as vp. this is signficant as chaney has been in the white house for over 25 yrs hurting america.silencing all critics to supply false climate data to the world.
in the next 3-5 yrs we will have measuremnet tools for climate change insurance and we can back date to the exact day the cost of chaneys actions. this will hold all republicans accountable for their inaction.as republicans still bitch and moan about 2 billion+ in obamas stimulas package for climate research. we are talking trillions of dollars here and this number will be associated with all republicans.in addition "ozone man" aka al gore told bush one about these problems more than 15 yrs ago as father and son have cost
america and the world billions and this elder bush has the balls to talk about running jeb bush in the future if and when this happens this politican will have his career erased because of his previous familys actions which will be associated and documented with climate change legislation. there will be no sitting peacefully on the ranch in texas in the future for george bush.and we will display the"hard decisions" this idiot made during his 8 yr term.