It looks like alternative investments are going to recieve a well deserved boost after some firm negotiations have been getting under way in Copenhagen.

Unless you have had your head buried in the sand for the past few months you will know that climate change is the “Hot Topic.” The reason climate change is a hot topic, is that world leaders have finally opened their eyes to reveal a world that is years away from possible catastrophe.

Leaders of the world are gathering in Copenhagen from the 7th of December to the 18th to “thrash out” a deal whereby rich westernized countries will have to pay the less economically developed countries for what we have done to the planet while we were growing.

You’re a property investment company why are you interested in climate change?

Well apart from the obvious -  This affects all of us!

The reason we have taken such a serious interest in these climate change debates is that, we know that when all the world powers are getting together to discuss climate change business opportunities are going to arise… and they have, but luckily we have a readily packaged investment for you to:

1. Profit by up to 100% pa
2. Make a real difference to the environment by saving the rainforests.

Have a look at our Carbon Credit Investment or read our Carbon Buyers Guide.

“Climate talks near deal to save forests” New York Times

The Carbon Credit Investment market is a hot topic at the moment owing lots of thanks to the words “Act on CO2” and the Copenhagen climate change summit or “COP15”

“Act on CO2” is the slogan of the governments advertising campaign to try and cut the emissions of UK households. It is big news from the TV Commercial to the News.

For this reason Fresh Invest are offering a fantastic opportunity to participate in this phenomenal growth market, for an entry price of just £25,000

The Carbon Emissions market is expanding rapidly year on year; in 2008 it doubled to an estimated value of more than $126 billion.

Research conducted by New Energy Finance claims the carbon market will reach $360 billion by 2012 and if the US introduces its own cap and trade scheme, as expected, it could rise to circa $1.9 trillion by 2020.

How would this effect investors in Carbon Credits?

The increase in market size is being driven by one thing….demand.

Reasons for an increase in demand include:

• Carbon Reduction Commitment – introduced next April. This will rank 5000 UK businesses according to their net carbon emissions.
• US Cap and Trade – companies will be encouraged to cut emissions, whatever they can’t cut they must trade.
• Less economically developed countries becoming more westernised in their day to day lives, carbon emissions per head will dramatically increase. These will need to be offset.
• Public Relations – Companies are beginning to lose business as they are seen as “dirty”. The only way to change this will be to cap and trade.
• Advertising – From much publicised conferences, to television commercials and news, “ACT on CO2” are the “buzz words” for the 21st century.
• COP-15 – 192 nations will be represented at this climate change conference in December that will put in place guidelines for countries to reduce their CO2 emissions.

So what is a carbon credit?

Each carbon credit is equivalent to 1 tonne of carbon dioxide. It is a commodity tradable on markets similar to the stock market. *You will not have to trade your credits yourself.

How do you make a carbon credit/where do they come from?

A carbon credit is issued by either the Voluntary Carbon Standard or the CDM (Clean Development Mechanism) Executive board.

Credits are issued to projects which are, in effect, carbon negative so they actively reduce the amount of CO2 in our atmosphere

What do they do and what are they used for?

At the moment it seems carbon credits are becoming more and more important everyday.

Put simply – Everybody has a carbon footprint which is measured in tonnes. So say I do 7,000 miles in my car per year – by doing these 7,000 miles my car will have emitted 2.4 tonnes of carbon dioxide, now if I wanted to offset this I would have to buy 3 carbon credits. (Probably at a price of around £11 each)

How do big companies use Carbon Credits?

A big company will use their carbon credits in much the same way as an individual would. However they have more emissions to offset than you or I.

Where you or I would be offsetting 1 car and 1 house a major supermarket chain would need to be offsetting the emissions of: All of their stores, All of their lorry delivery fleet, all of their production lines etc… you get the idea?

How can I, as an investor profit from Carbon Credits?

Fresh Invest are offering its investors the opportunity to purchase Carbon Credits at 50 pence per credit!

The minimum investment is £25,000 and for this you will receive 50,000 credits at 1,000 credits per year for 50 years.

For the first 3 years our partner will guarantee you a return of 12%.

From years 3 to 50 you will sell directly to the end user through our partner who is also a carbon broker.

free phone on 0800 043 69 56 or go to www.freshinvest.co.uk

A blog about Carbon Credits as: An investment, A growing market and a possible lifesaver.

Did you hear about San Francisco Airport being the first airport to install carbon offset kiosks in their terminals? HOW EXCITING IS THAT?!

As far as I am concerned this is a fantastic idea. The easier it is for people to offset their carbon emissions the better! The carbon offset kiosk is about 5ft tall and fully automated so doesn’t need anyone to run it on a day to day basis. Now bear in mind that around 18 million flights are made per year carrying around 1 billion passengers… How’s that for a target market? 1 billion bored passengers waiting for inevitably delayed flights. Nothing else to do but think about how the flight they are just about to embark upon is going to damage the planet that little bit more.

Now I know what the worry in this process will be. “So I pay around £10 for this credit, in the understanding that someone, somewhere has stopped 1 tonne of co2 entering the atmosphere.”

I will explain why this works in terms of a forestry project.

When you give money to the offset company they will:

1. Use the money to purchase forestry which has sequestered CO2.
2. Pay indigenous or local people to look after this forestry thereby stopping it from being cut down for monetary gain.
3. By preventing the logging of this forest you will stop trapped CO2 from entering the atmosphere.

The opportunity:

This is where we come in.

As you can see the carbon credit market is growing and this latest piece of news alone could bring a further £10 billion per year of income to the market. Obviously this is a massive claim and it would mean that every airport would have to install many of these kiosks and every passenger would have to purchase around one credit for each flight, even though, the chances are, they are using more than this.

Now we are offering an opportunity, in this market where you could make returns of 100% pa for 47 years!

How can we do this?

One of our partners has started a company which purchases land out in the Brazilian rainforest. The trees on this land have a massive amount of carbon stored in them and if he wasn’t preserving these trees they would be illegally logged and then the carbon which is currently stored would be released, furthering the damage to our atmosphere.

For our partners fantastic efforts he is rewarded with 1 carbon credit by the voluntary carbon standard for every tonne of CO2 which he prevents from entering the atmosphere. These credits currently trade at around £11 each in the market.

This is where you come in.

• We will offer you the chance to buy these credits from our partner at a price of 50 pence per credit!
• The minimum investment is £25,000 and for this you will receive 50,000 credits at 1,000 credits per year for 50 years.
• For the first 3 years the project manager will guarantee you a return of 12%.
• From years 3 to 50 you will sell directly to the end user through our partner who is also a carbon broker.
• The price for these credits is currently hovering around the £11 mark this would lead to a return of 44% pa on your invested money. Not bad hey!

There are 2 types of carbon credit: CER’s (certified emission reductions) and VER’s (verified emission reductions).

CER’s can trade at anything up to around £30 per credit.

VER’s can trade at anything up to around £15 per credit.

By purchasing from our forestry offset you will be purchasing VER’s

How could you make returns of 100% pa?

For the last few years there has been a lot of controversy over what category forestry offsets should be traded as. At the Copenhagen climate change summit in December this year, it is highly likely that forestry will be named as a “clean development mechanism” or CDM therefore producing CER’s. The reason for this is that current clean development mechanisms such as wind farms or solar farms actually create carbon when they are built as I’m sure you can appreciate. However forestry does not emit any carbon to put in place, the trees are already there, all we are doing is making sure they are not forested for monetary gain.

If forestry offsets become CER’s the project managers or investors can sell the credits at a higher price. This money can then filter through to the local people looking after the forests. Furthering the need to sustain rainforests rather than deplete them. Basically “the forest will be worth more alive than dead”

p.s. It’s already started. The UNFCCC have already named 3 forestry projects as clean development mechanisms.

If you would like more details on our fantastic forestry opportunity Click here

Further reading

This is the website for the Copenhagen climate change summit and articles relating the forestry. http://en.cop15.dk/Frontpage/Search+result?query=forestry

Sound familiar?

As a race we have become too dependent on “the next person” This is why we are now in the mess we are, in terms of climate change. Everybody thinks that it is not their problem and I personally think that many people are relying on necessity being the mother of invention.

People think that somehow we are going to invent some carbon sequestering machine which will suck up all the carbon in the atmosphere and save the world. But I, like many others am beginning to become worried I think that we are starting to come to the point of no return.

If deforestation continues at the same rate as it currently is (13 MILLION HECTARES PER YEAR!) we are going to have no trees left. Let’s not forget that trees give us the most basic element for survival in Oxygen. They release moisture into the air which provides us with the cool climate in which we live and grow crops.

As Carbon levels in the atmosphere increase as does the temperature of the world. Now when I say that a 1 degree increase in world temperatures is imminent you may think “great I hate the British summer anyway!” Well what if I then said that a further 1 degree increase in temperature would start a dominoes effect in terms of climate change, and could lead to the end of life as we know it?

Now the first degree is unavoidable, because of the way we have lived our post industrialization lives we have to live with that. We became too dependent on life’s luxuries. We, in the West imported as much as we could, without thinking about the implications of how much carbon the transport was producing. When we aren’t importing, our large scale mechanization leads to further carbon emissions, even for the simplest of jobs.

Now there is a way we can avoid the 2^nd degree in temperature rise and this is to decrease our carbon emissions by over 60% in the next 10 years, yes it’s a lot but it is vital! Reforestation/Afforestation is a start, invest in a reforestation/afforestation project which will make sure that the trees in a monitored patch of land are not illegally cut down and are, therefore sequestering carbon. The companies that run these schemes concentrate on educating the local people and showing them that the forest is actually worth more alive than dead. This is because the company is able to trade their excess carbon credits earned, from the profit they can pay the local people that are looking after the forest.

Because of this, here at Fresh Invest we have been working hard on expanding our alternative investments section we are now offering investments in 2 different types of carbon reducing project.

One is our Carbon Credit Investment. This is an opportunity for our investor to purchase carbon credits at a massively reduced price, from a company whose aim is to protect rainforests and then trade the excess carbon credits from it.

The second is an opportunity for our investor to invest in British farmland planted with a renewable biomass. This crop is then sold to a renewable power plant to be co-burnt with coal giving you a small but consistent yield. The main advantage of investing in UK farmland, apart from the obvious reduction in UK carbon emissions is, Security! It has shown consistent growth and is in ever increasing demand.

At the end of the day if people don’t start investing in projects like this it really could mean the end of the world!

For more info on any of our opportunities email or freephone 0800 043 69 56

Farmland as an alternative investment is a relatively “untapped” market at present.

Why is this? Well investing in farmland often means that you will have to be of a high net worth so unless you can scrape together a few million pounds it is… I’m afraid to say out of most individuals reach.

This is because farmland is currently selling at around £5,000 per acre. This doesn’t sound too bad but farms are normally sold in massive lot sizes.

Why would you want to invest in farmland?

Firstly let’s look at what the prices of agricultural farmland are governed by:

• Increasing demand from house builders as the population of the world increases.
• Increasing demand from farmers that need to provide food for this growing population.
• Increasing demand from power stations that need to decrease their non renewable resource consumption to help the UK stay in Line with the Kyoto Protocol.
• Decreasing resources as more and more planning permission is granted for new homes, renewable power stations and renewable energy projects such as wind farms. The supply of bare agricultural land is running out and one thing is for sure we cannot create more!

The cumulative result of this has been values increasing by 15% year upon year.

Farmland is something which every human being needs to live. In its purest form it provides us with a means to grow food and rear cattle therefore providing the means to eat for the whole population.

A quote from H.R.H Prince Charles recently in the Richard Dimbleby lecture read “That which sustains us must itself, also be sustained” This means that the whole ecosystem of this world needs to be restored at the same or at a faster rate than it is diminished. The Amazonian rainforest alone releases 50 billion tonnes of water vapour into the atmosphere every day! This makes our climate cool and makes this planet inhabitable. Deforestation is currently operating at a rate of; the size of a football pitch every 4 seconds! One of the great problems with deforestation is the rate at which it impacts on our environment. Not only does all of the CO2 sunk by the trees get released into the atmosphere when they are burnt. But there are now less natural CO2 sinkers in the environment and when trees are not sinking CO2, they are not producing oxygen, the very air we breathe.

Our reliance upon nature’s non-renewable resources is 25% greater than nature can self sustain. Fossil fuels such as coal, petroleum and natural gas are being used at too fast a rate. The sustainability of these fossil fuels is something which is being tackled by the Kyoto Protocol.

The Kyoto Protocol is an obligation made by all countries to cut their use of non renewable resources by 80% by 2050. Here is where we can come back to farmland and the growing market that is renewable crops and the land underpinning it. As Power stations throughout the UK start to follow the trend and invest heavily in harnessing the power of renewable resources, this may well drive up the prices of green energy crops such as Miscanthus grass which is a co-burner to be used with coal in the production of electricity. Now this may well increase your annual yield through higher revenues, but with this, the land itself should increase in value as it is now worth more to the investor.

So let’s recap

- The price of farmland is steadily increasing as demand increases and supply decreases.

- Farmland value has increased on average by 15% year on year.

- It is a diminishing resource that needs to be sustained.

- It will help the UK contribute to their Kyoto protocol obligations.

- More and more people are starting to see the benefits of being “Armchair Farmers”.

- There is around £11 billion of borrowing secured on assets worth over £170 billion, excluding stocks and growing crops.

- It is the foundation of the built environment!

Remember the secret to success is to balance your portfolio. Where better than UK farmland?

Here at Fresh Invest we have been working hard, attempting to provide our investors with the means to build and prosper from a balanced portfolio.

Why is it so important to build a balanced portfolio?

A balanced portfolio will perform well in every market. You need to prepare yourself for every eventuality, for example. If there is another fall in house prices, people are likely to look elsewhere for places to hedge their savings or pensions and hopefully provide them with an income. This will therefore push prices up in the relative sectors, as demand increases people will look to charge more of a premium.

As markets become more volatile than ever, you should be looking to put your hard earned savings and pensions into a range of products where the value is governed by an increasing demand and a decreasing supply, during varying economic climates.

How about UK farmland? Well let’s get one thing straight we cannot create more land, neither can we build upwards, agriculturally. UK Farmland has been growing in value by 15% pa over the past 3 years where other investments have been decreasing in value.

We always need land

Another point is that if the UK housing market was to recover there will be uplift in demand for farmland yet again as housing developers start to look for land to build on. Putting further pressure on price rises as resources are diminished. Now if this happened and you were lucky enough to purchase in an area where planning gain is possible for further housing, this could greatly increase the value of your land!

Not only can alternative investments provide safe returns in uncertain economic times, many of them can provide great taxation benefits such as capital gains and inheritance tax relief.

There is a vast array of alternative investments on the market at the moment and without specialist advice you may not end up with a balanced portfolio at all.

So speak to the experts www.freshinvest.co.uk