Wermuth Asset Management GmbH

07/11/2024

must adjust its debt rule before early elections in spring of 2025!

Failing to act in the remaining days and weeks puts at risk Germany, the EU, Europe’s defense, but also the rule of law and the battle against climate change globally.

The rule was well intended to limit borrowing to investments, but poorly drafted: it must be applied not just to single year as is the case now, but to a decade or more, over which investments bear fruits.

Unless this happens, Germany’s, the EU’s and indeed the world’s future is at severe risk:

It is highly likely, that German democratic forces will lose their constitutional majority in the spring of 2025 to extreme forces.

When it does, Germany may choke on its own rules - while that may cause some “Schadenfreude”, ie be quite amusing to those who have suffered from German rules - it is unfortunately dead serious.

Following ’s victory Germany and the EU must take more responsibility for ‘s our ’s and Germany’s own defense and .

But the Finance Minister blocked more spending, based on the current, self-imposed constitutional no borrowing rules. He was thus fired and the Social Democratic - Green - Liberal coalition came to an end.

CDU/CSU, SPD and GREENS must now act, before Germany becomes a sitting duck waiting to literally be run over.

25/05/2024

Ich freue mich an der Pressekonferenz „Hungern bis ihr ehrlich seid“ teilgenommen zu haben:

Marktkräfte stehen heute hinter der Grünen Industrierevolution. Es braucht nur noch mutige Regierungen die die Wahrheit aussprechen, dass wir unseren CO2 Budget schon verbraucht haben, und die CO2 Emissionen zu Vollkosten von €200/t CO2 besteuert und als pro Kopf Klimadividende von €200/EU Bürger:in/Monat (€800/Monat für eine vierköpfige Familie) wieder ausschüttet. Da die reichsten 1% der Menschheit soviel CO2 verbrauchen wie die ärmsten 50% macht das die meisten Menschen wohlhabender und belohnt die, die weniger CO2 verbrauchen.

Jochen Wermuths Statement bei der Pressekonferenz der Hungerstreikenden unter dem Motto "Hungern bis ihr ehrlich seid" die eine Regierungserklaerung fordern ...

31/03/2024

Happy Easter 2024! Peace is in our hands by introducing a carbon tax and dividend as in Canada and Sweden:

On Easter Sunday 2024 we must unite for peace by following the trinity of:1) sending 500 000 EU troops and Ta**us to Ukraine2) genuinely offering Russia EU m...

04/12/2023

Join us 10h30 - 11h30 on Tuesday 5 December at COP28 “Green Zone Stage” for the presentation of our study “Switch Coal profitably to renewables” of the 2500 remaining coal power plants globally.

It shows that 90% of remaining

Coal power plants can be switched profitably prior to 2030 to

wind-solar-battery plants,

saving 10Gt of global emissions, or about half of what is needed to keep 1.5 degrees within reach!

This study assessed the impact and economic feasibility of switching all worldwide coal plants to Solar-Wind-Battery by 2030. More information here!

30/11/2023

Ich freue mich, dass zum Start der COP28 unsere Studie “SwitchCoal Profitably to Renewable Energy” auf www.switchcoal.org veröffentlichen konnten und die Tagesschau-Redaktion darüber berichtet:

https://www.tagesschau.de/wissen/klima/studie-kohlekraftwerke-100.html

SwitchCoal zeigt: 50% des COP28 CO2 Reduktionsziels ist durch profitablen Umstieg von Kohle zu Erneuerbaren möglich!

Die zu Beginn der COP28 präsentierte SwitchCoal-Studie zeigt auf, dass 90 % der Kohlekraftwerke weltweit bis 2030 profitabel durch Solar-Wind-Batterie-Kraftwerke (WSBK) ersetzt werden können. Das dient nicht nur dem Klimaschutz, sondern sichert auch Arbeitsplätze und lohnt sich finanziell.

Dabei können noch vor 2030 10 Gigatonnen CO2 pro Jahr eingespart werden. Das sind ein Viertel der weltweiten CO2-Emissionen und fast die Hälfte der 22Gt, die sich der COP28 Präsident zum Ziel gesetzt hat.

Der Umstieg auf WSBK kostet etwa 5 Billionen Euro, liefert etwa 10 Billionen Euro regulären Gewinn und darüber hinaus noch 6 Billionen Euro an zusätzlichem gesellschaftlichen Gewinn, da die WSBK günstigeren Strom als Kohlekraftwerke herstellen.

Das macht den Umstieg finanziell noch attraktiver und beschleunigt ihn, genau wie die Nutzung von bestehenden Erlaubnissen, Infrastruktur und Arbeitskräften.

Die Studie zeigt außerdem, dass die physisch notwendigen Ressourcen für die ausreichende Produktion von Solarmodulen, Windrädern und Batterien, sowie die notwendigen Standorte in der Nähe der Kohlekraftwerke zur Verfügung stehen.

Auch in Deutschland ist die Abschaltung der verbleibenden 58 Kohlekraftwerke heute schon profitabel, mit Investitionen von 110 Mrd. Euro und 210 Mrd. Euro an Projektgewinnen sowie zusätzlichen Gewinnen von 620 Mrd. Euro.

Liste der Autor:innen:
Prof. Dr. Pietro P. Altermatt
BA Business Leonidas v. Bothmer
Dipl.-Phys. Stefan Golla
Dipl.-Phys. Frank Haferkorn
Prof. Dr. Claudia Kemfert
Prof. Holger Jahn
Dipl. Inf. Thomas Ladwig
Dr. Solvejg Nasert
Dipl. Ing. Thomas Schmidt
Dr. Ingo Stuckmann
Prof. Dr. Felisa Tibbitts
MA Econ Jochen Wermuth

Fast alle Kohlekraftwerke weltweit könnten bis 2030 durch eine Kombination aus Fotovoltaik, Windkraft und Batteriespeicher ersetzt werden. Auch finanziell würde sich der Umstieg lohnen, so das Ergebnis einer neuen Energie-Studie. Von N. Schader.

30/11/2023

Dear friends!

The “Switch Coal profitably to renewable energy” study, which I co-authored, has been published this morning on www.switchcoal.org/resources.

It is covered on Germany’s state TV news site: https://www.tagesschau.de/wissen/klima/studie-kohlekraftwerke-100.html.

The study finds that 10 Gt of annual CO2 emissions can profitably be cut by switching coal to wind-solar-battery-plants.

Given wind-, solar-, and geographical conditions at the remaining 2500 coal power plant locations globally, 90% can be switched profitably before 2030.

SwitchCoal thus addresses part of COP28 President Sultan Al Jabr’s call to cut an additional 22 Gt of annual CO2 emissions by 2030 to keep the 1.5-degree target within reach.

The required investment of €5tn delivers some €10tn regular project earnings plus some €6tn in additional profits from lower power production costs.

This lifts the average return on investment from 6% to 10% per annum, so market forces can now drive this transition once governments set the rules, e.g., via a carbon tax and dividend system at the EU level.

We, as co-authors of the study, would be grateful if you could share this positive story widely among the public and COP28 delegates

Fast alle Kohlekraftwerke weltweit könnten bis 2030 durch eine Kombination aus Fotovoltaik, Windkraft und Batteriespeicher ersetzt werden. Auch finanziell würde sich der Umstieg lohnen, so das Ergebnis einer neuen Energie-Studie. Von N. Schader.

20/07/2022

… but this is actually not a big deal, more like a return to normal. The golden years of post-war economic , the trente glorieuses for the French, ended on October 16, 1973 when OPEC announced its first oil embargo – and will never be repeated again, says Northwestern University’s productivity guru Robert Gordon.

Wermuth Weekly Commentary is:
https://wermutham.com/2022/07/19/market-commentary-productivity-growth-continues-to-slow/

01/06/2022

Die globale Angebotsseite ist durch Chinas strikt durchgesetzte Null-Corona-Politik verknappt. Dies hat weltweit zu rasch steigenden Inflationsraten geführt. Dank der bemerkenswerten Widerstandsfähigkeit seiner Wirtschaft bleibt China jedoch der Wachstumsmotor der Welt und spielt in immer mehr Sektoren eine führende Rolle. Weitere Einblicke in die chinesische Wirtschaft und ihre globalen Auswirkungen sowie die Aussichten für die Weltwirtschaft bietet der wöchentliche Marktkommentar von Ökonom Dieter Wermuth:

Dieter Wermuth, Economist and Partner at Wermuth Asset Management Economists used to say that if the US sneezed the rest of the world would catch the flu. In the meantime, this is true for China, the biggest player in international trade and soon the biggest economy as well. On the basis of so-calle...

01/06/2022

The global supply side is bottlenecked due to China’s strictly enforced zero-Covid policies. It has led to rapidly rising inflation rates on a global scale. However, due to China’s remarkable resilience of its economy, it remains the world’s growth engine and plays a leading role in more and more sectors. More insights about China’s economy and its global impact, and the outlook of the world economy from Economist Dieter Wermuth’s weekly Market Commentary:

Dieter Wermuth, Economist and Partner at Wermuth Asset Management Economists used to say that if the US sneezed the rest of the world would catch the flu. In the meantime, this is true for China, the biggest player in international trade and soon the biggest economy as well. On the basis of so-calle...

18/06/2020

You are kindly invited,

by the impact investor network “Toniic”, the Institutional Investor Group on Climate Change (IIGCC) and Wermuth Asset Management GmbH (WAM), to join this year’s virtual Berlin Green Investment Summit (BGIS) in the form of a series of short quarterly video calls on the topic: „How to close the climate finance gap”

16h-16h45 CET each last Thursday of a quarter, until we meet again in person.

25 June 2020, 24 September 2020, 31 December 2020, 25 March 2021, 24 June 2021…

The first “high tea” webinar will take place via Zoom on 25 June 2020 – 16:00-16:45 CET.

We are proud to have Ms. Laurence Tubiana, the CEO of the European Climate Foundation and previously France’s Special Ambassador for Climate Change at the COP21 in Paris, giving the impulse speech at our kick-off webinar.

This will be followed by a brief panel discussion with Mr. Peter Damgaard-Jensen, President of the Institutional Investor Group on Climate Change (IIGCC) and CEO of PKA, the Danish Pension Fund, and Mr. Philippe Desfossés, the CEO of the Climate Endowment Fund. Next there will be virtual break-out sessions where you can introduce yourself, share what motivates you to work on climate solutions, comment on the speech, call for actions and appoint a rapporteur who will report back to the full group. The panel will then respond.

In spite of lots of capital being mobilized by governments to stimulate economies in response to the Corona-crisis, and in spite of a global savings glut which leads to negative interest rates, there is a shortfall of spending on climate-friendly companies and projects. The IEA and IRENA estimate that the “climate finance gap” remains €1.5 trillion a year. This is how much more must be invested per year to limit global warming to 1.5 degrees, as agreed upon in Paris, to avoid a catastrophe. In spite of a large number of worthy new companies and plenty of projects which could become “bankable” one day, most capital still goes to finance old CO2-intensive industries with little future. The investments that are needed include risk-capital for venture companies, for project developments and for the roll-out of proven technologies and business models in new markets, including developing and emerging economies.

As investors are generally cautious about venture capital, cleantech, development risks and developing markets in particular, it appears that the perceived risk-return profile is still insufficient to attract capital. This is surprising, as renewable energy is increasingly competitive. Also, some electric cars, driven intensively with their batteries used as a storage-power plants, can already compete with fossil-fuel cars. Thanks to Fintech, a solar panel can be installed profitably on any hut in the world if the user has a mobile phone. Opportunities in agro-forestry abound: while the German Environmental Agency (Umweltbundesamt) estimates that a ton of CO2, emitted today, causes €640 in damages over 100 years, one can capture a ton of CO2 by reforestation for €6 per ton. Artificial intelligence, circular economy and efficiency offer further outstanding opportunities. This may be a case of market failure, where the opportunity is attractive, but is not seen by market participants. It may thus be required that governments step in and provide preferred returns to private investors, for instance in the form of taking first losses and/or giving up returns above a certain level.

Let us find ways to cooperate in order to move significant amounts of capital towards climate solutions, in particular into areas perceived as risky, such as project development and scaling-up “green” ventures. Once these are bankable, lots of capital can flow.

Shortly after you accept this invitation you can register by ordering a free ticket via Eventbrite: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/berlin-green-investment-summit-high-tea-webinar-series-tickets-107695712776. We will then give you with the log-in details. Participation without registration will not be possible as we are pre-arranging the virtual break-out sessions.

Save the date!

05/08/2015

Barack Obama, the US president, warns the world may no longer be able to reverse global warming - unless aggressive action is taken, now.

Guests:

New York - Jochen Wermuth, chief investment officer and founder of Wermuth Asset Management, investing in companies with a positive impact on the environment.

Geneva - David Elzinga, economic affairs officer for the Sustainable Energy Division at the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe.

Beijing - Peng Peng, Director of Policy Research for the Chinese Renewable Energy Industries Association.

The US president says time is running out for action on climate change.