Money really matters

Nov 24, 2020

Those of you who have not been paying attention to where your money (including pension funds) has been invested might want to look away now. Globally the average carbon footprint is about 5 tonnes of CO2e per year, the UK is about 10 tonnes and in the US over 20tonnes. Individuals can calculate their own footprints (see calculator recommended on this site) by adding transport to heating to travel ... Unfortunately for those with savings and pensions it is money that could be having the greatest impact. The web site at https://www.adelphi.de/en/project/carbon-footprint-capital-investments claims that just £10,000 invested could be responsible for 5 tonnes of carbon emissions! With £100,000 in a pension pot the impact could be 50 tonnes. This would be equivalent to a lot of air travel and eating of red meat.

The corollary of this is that the £100,000s could be invested in ways that would be carbon neutral or even carbon negative. The Ethical Consumer could recommend how this can be achieved https://www.google.com/search?...

Not on everybody's radar is the concept of B Corp https://bcorporation.uk/certification that seeks to provide an alternative to the rampant capitalism responsible for turning money into carbon.

Making my money matter https://makemymoneymatter.co.u...has cottoned onto the impact that savings, investments and in particular pensions (due to their scale) are having on devastating the environment. If there is one thing that we should all be doing in response to the climate and ecological emergency it is to ensure that our money is part of the solution and not part of the problem. This need not result in poorer returns and disinvesting in fossil fuels (and any account that might be connected to them) might turn out to be the smart thing to do for both the wallet and the grand children.