By Lisa Twaronite

Against Thursday's bright backdrop for Asian equities markets, some analysts are expecting the upcoming United Nations Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen to give certain green shares a new shine.

"The likelihood is increasing for our controversial thesis of a Copenhagen rally," Macquarie Securities analysts wrote in a recent report.

"We anticipate a rally in share prices of renewable energy and cleaner-utility stocks, sparked by cooperation and commitments in principle by member countries" at the upcoming climate meeting, they said.

The meeting to address global warming and emissions reductions will be held Dec. 7-18 in the Danish capital, and will be attended by leaders including U.S. President Barack Obama and Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao.

Initially, the meeting aimed to set a new global agreement on climate change to update the 1997 Kyoto Protocol, which is due to expire in 2012. But last month, the goal of a new comprehensive pact was postponed, and leaders now hope merely to reach a less specific "politically binding" agreement.

Last week, China set its first targets designed to slow carbon-dioxide emissions by the end of the next decade. The State Council, China's Cabinet, said the nation is planning by the end of 2020 to cut carbon emissions per unit of gross domestic product by between 40% and 45% of their 2005 levels.

China will also put major efforts into developing renewable and nuclear energies, with the goal that about 15% of the nation's total power consumption will come from these sources by the target date.

"China's targets may not be high enough to satisfy European and U.S. negotiators who indicated that anything below 50% would be less ambitious than present efforts to improve energy efficiency," said the Macquarie report, which was co-written by analysts Nicholas Teo, Shai Hill, Adam Worthington, Carol Cao, Kelly Dougherty and Michael Carmody.

Asian names to watch

"For the Copenhagen rally, stocks we recommend to go long include clean power and gas stocks," they said, naming Xinao Gas Holdings Ltd. (XNGSY) and wind-power company China High Speed Transmission Group Co. (0658.HK), as well as Indonesia's state-owned gas and energy company Perusahaan Gas Negara (PPAAY)(PGAS.JK) and British energy company BG Group Plc (BRGXF).

The Macquarie analysts didn't include any Tokyo stocks on their list, but analysts here have been paying attention to Japan Wind Development Co. , which some have said could benefit from the new government's emphasis on seeking green solutions and alternative energy sources.

Japanese Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama has declared a goal of bringing down Japanese emissions of greenhouse gases to 25% below 1990 levels by 2020

On Thursday, Japan Wind Development was up 1.8%. The benchmark Nikkei 225 Average was up 2.8%, and the broader Topix 1000 index was up 2.7%.

Most other Asian markets were also higher, with South Korea's Kospi up 0.6%, and Australia's S&P/ASX 200 edging up less than 0.1%.

Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index was up 0.5%, but the Shanghai Composite slipped 0.4%.