A NEW scheme by co-founder of Comic Relief wants to ‘transform the financial system to put people and planet on a par with profit.’
Film writer and director Richard Curtis, who is responsible for films such as Four Weddings and a Funeral, Notting Hill and Love Actually, has co-founded Make My Money Matter, which aims to drive systematic change in the pensions industry to make the investments fuel Sustainable Development Goals and help meet a Net Zero emissions world.
A total of 21 organisations have already joined the initiative, including Oxfam, WWF, Comic Relief, Triodos Bank, BNP Paribas, Ecotricity, and the Environment Agency Pension Fund, one of the UK’s largest local government pension schemes.
Make My Money Matter states on their website: “There’s £3 trillion in UK pensions. This money is owned by all of us, and is invested to build our savings for the future.
“But from fossil fuels to tobacco, exploitation to extraction, these investments are often contradicting our values.
“That’s why we’re calling for our money to be invested in building a future we can be proud of, economies we can rely on, and an environment we can thrive in.
“If you have a pension, you have power. So much power that moving to a more sustainable fund can have 27 times as much impact in reducing your carbon footprint than giving up flying and becoming a vegan combined.
“That’s because pension funds invest money on our behalf, often into companies that do harm, supply chains that are unsustainable, and industries that accelerate climate change.
“When people find out they’re accidental investors in these companies, they’re often horrified to know where their money is actually going.
“It’s undermining the day-to-day choices and contradicting their values, so vegans may be investing in the meat industry, medics in tobacco, and climate activists in the worst behaving fossil fuel companies.
“But it doesn’t have to be this way. As soon as people discover their money is invested, most want it to do good while it’s growing.”
Make My Money Matter is not a divestment campaign but seeks to begin conversation about the power investors and companies have to create a sustainable future.
More information about the campaign is available here
