Tag Archives: romania
A Draft Law Which Would Limit Individuals’ Ownership Of Romanian Farmland To 100 Hectares
Balkans.com Business News Correspondent – 05.09.2013 A draft law which would limit individuals’ ownership of farmland to 100 hectares will be sent to the Parliament in a couple of weeks, the Romanian Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development announced yesterday. If passed, the law will come into force starting January 1, 2014, when the local land market will be liberalized, allowing foreign individuals to purchase and own land in Romania. Asked during a press conference today whether the law breaches EU legislation, agriculture minister Daniel Constantin said it doesn’t, as the law will apply to all individuals looking to buy farmland in Romania, regardless of their nationality. Those who want to farm surfaces larger than 100 ha can do this only through locally registered companies, explained the minister. The law will not have retroactive effects. In addition to the 100 ha ownership limit, the draft proposes several other restrictions to those who want to sell and purchase farmland. Co-owners who are individuals, neighbors, tenants, and individuals under 40 years involved in farming activities in the same locality will have pre-emption right to purchase farmland available for sale. The state too will have pre-emption right and a special institution will be created. Plots of land located closer than 10 km from the border and those where archaeological remains are found can be sold only with the approval of the Ministry of National Defense and the Ministry of Culture, respectively. Interested buyers must prove they have farming know-how and experience of at least 5 years in the field. Those who already own farmland and want to buy more must prove that they have used the land they own for farming activities. From January 1, 2014, non-resident foreign citizens are set to be able to buy Romanian land, under Romania’s Treaty of Accession to the EU. Business Review Romania Continue reading
GMO’s Jeremy Grantham on Climate Change and Investable Ideas
By Nick Summers August 08, 2013 Photograph by Harry Gould Harvey IV for Bloomberg Businessweek What was a 74-year-old asset manager, who oversees $100 billion, doing at a Keystone XL pipeline protest outside the White House? The biggest issue confronting us is the deterioration of the environment, particularly damage to the climate. It’s one thing to warn in a quarterly letter about a carbon bubble and another to maybe get arrested for it. Why did you take that step? Within the U.S., the biggest problem is coal and tar sands. If we burn half or more of what we have in two areas in North America, there is no chance of avoiding very dire consequences. Rising water levels displacing hundreds of millions of people globally, destabilizing global politics, acidification of the water almost certainly destroying most of the coral reefs, and possibly threatening the bottom of the food chain in the ocean. In November, you wrote that scientists must sound a more desperate note. I think they have an ethical responsibility. Did you ever think you would be out in front of scientists? I’m not out in front. What they are reflecting is what we learned in the investment business: the significance of career risk. I made a living pointing out that our No. 1 job is not managing money; it’s keeping our job. Short-term momentum investing dominates because of that. The scientists are protecting their jobs. How they do that is to stay out of the limelight and make sure they’re conservative. What is your opinion of young people? They’re not out in the streets. They are still flocking to Wall Street. They’re not flocking quite so enthusiastically to the financial world. I am prepared to take my optimism wherever I can get it. Obviously, they haven’t responded. It may seem too distant, which is ridiculous because this is happening so fast that this is their lives, not their children’s. How do you start with big observations and get to investable ideas? The only investable idea I have real confidence in is farming and forestry. My family owns some forest, and now we’re closing on a farm. Make the farming more sustainable and the forestry more sustainable, and everyone benefits. Can you talk more about the farm? We’re buying a farm to do comprehensive experiments and broad-based agriculture. What they call “mob grazing”—a high density of cattle, moving them around, making sure that they eat everything that’s there. They trample the seed and so on and they fertilize it. Using goats to eat invasive plants, using chickens to follow the cattle and pigs to eat the leftover vegetables and the fallen fruit, orchards growing fruit and organic vegetables, over 200 acres. Where is this? Maui. My elder son is at Harvard Management Co. He does exotic forestry and farming investments. The second son is a forester. This will give us data and experiments without betting the farm on any one of them. When do you plan to get seeds inthe ground? Immediately. They’ll start small. It will hopefully be a template. They use this offensive word “holistic.” I hate it. It’s the world’s most pretentious word. How long do you let an idea percolate before you commit it to one of your quarterly letters to investors? Sometimes years. I have a decent idea about the exaggerated attention given to debt. I seem to be having writer’s block. What is this big idea? I’m not saying it’s a big idea. It may be very humble. I noticed a series of deficiencies in the data as typically presented. It’s as if only debt matters, only finance matters, only banking matters. We have been manipulated to see ourselves in a world where those things rule the roost and therefore we have to be protective of the big banks. Can the Fed take away easy money without jolting the markets? Who cares? This is the game I’m complaining about. We will prosper by the quality and quantity of our labor and capital. Do not pretend that how they twitch around has any material effect. Many people intuit that climate change is getting worse, but put it out of their heads. Why do you find this interesting? I like to be right. I try not to miss the big ideas, forget the little ones, and try to get them right. End of job description. Continue reading
FAO: Wood, The Leading Source For Renewable Energy In Europe
July 18, 2013 • Source: FAO According to a report issued by FAO (Food and Agricultural Organization) of the United Nations, the overall wood energy accounts for 3.4% of the total primary energy supply and 38.9% of the renewable energy supply in 27 UNECE (United Nations Economic Commission for Europe) member countries in 2011, confirming its role as the leading source of renewable energy. The report says that between 2009 and 2011, the amount of wood used for energy purposes within this group of countries grew annually by 4.8%. The role of wood in total primary energy supply increased slightly from 4.3% to 5.4% while the share of wood energy among renewable energy sources increased from 46.1% to 48.7%. The main sources of wood energy were as follows: Co-products and residues from forest-based industries, including processed wood fuels with improved energy content such as wood pellets, briquettes and charcoal (also called indirect sources) contributed 57%. Woody biomass from forests and other wooded land (also known as direct sources) such as logging residues, thinnings and clearings, which represented 34.1% of consumption. Recovered waste wood (mainly waste from construction, but also packaging and old furniture), which accounted for 3.7% of the supply. However, the proportion of these sources varies among countries. For instance, Albania, Armenia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, France, Italy, Serbia and Slovenia rely heavily on direct supplies of wood fibres. But Austria, Canada, Finland, Ireland, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Sweden and the United States rely mainly on wood supply from indirect sources. Canada, Finland, Norway, Sweden and the United States have large shares of energy generated from black liquor, reflecting the relative importance of the pulp and paper industries in the forest sector. Waste wood is reported as a significant source of wood energy in Germany, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom, where it is mainly consumed in power applications and waste to energy plants. In general, however, data on recovered wood are difficult to obtain and often not discernible from overall waste statistics. Some 48% of the wood energy supply is consumed by the industrial sector. The forest products industry typically consumes energy generated from the solid and liquid co-products of its manufacturing processes. Countries with major forest industries, such as Finland, Sweden and the United States, have therefore a higher level of industrial consumption. Residential use, mainly dependent on direct supplies of firewood, accounted for 34.4% of the wood energy supply. Albania, Armenia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Romania, Serbia, Slovenia and Ukraine report this category as their primary use. But consumption of wood energy use by private households is often higher than official records indicate. The power and heat sector represents 15% of wood energy use. This sector is the largest consumer of wood energy in Denmark, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom. Continue reading
