Divesting and Ethical Investment
If you are lucky enough to have financial investments, then you can leverage this funding to ensure that your money doesn’t support actions which exacerbate the climate emergency.
Divesting means moving your investments out of fossil fuel companies and other damaging industries, to ones that have a neutral impact on the planet.
However, you can go even further than this and seek out investments in companies and projects that actively combat the climate emergency and promote environmental causes, enabling you to use your money to help make the world a better place. This is called sustainable investment (SI), and both SI and divestment sit under what is known as ethical investment.
As a first step you may wish to check with your current provider where your funds are invested. If they are invested in fossil fuel companies or other damaging industries, then you can ask about options for switching to an alternative ethical fund.
Both Which? and the Money Advice Service have guides providing further information on ethical investment and your options for this.
Please remember, as with all investing, ethical investment involves financial risk, so make sure you’ve properly researched the investment you choose.
Financial Products
Even the financial products we use can have climate emergency implications. Ethical Consumer provide a range of guides for choosing ethical products across a variety of financial products including ethical bank accounts, investment funds, ISAs, pensions, mortgages and insurance for your home, car, travel and even pets!