As Financial Planners, we quite like numbers and statistics. So, to celebrate Good Money Week, we thought we’d share a few about pensions and how these could help the world and climate change for us all.
The total pension wealth in the UK was estimated to be £6.1 Trillion in a 2016-18 study conducted by the Office for National Statistics. Written in numbers that is £6,100,000,000,000. Of this massive number, the Daily Mail estimates there is currently around £25 Billion invested in ‘good money’ funds.
It is hard to get definitive numbers on this because of the varying definitions that come under the umbrella term of ‘good money’. Whilst £25b sounds like a lot of money, it only equates to 0.4% of the total pension wealth in the UK.
According to research by Good Money Week, 79.2% of us think we are responsible as individuals to take action to combat climate change.
The companies in which our pensions are invested have a huge impact on climate change. It is hard to say how much of pension industry is invested in polluting companies and industries but 76.5% of us are unaware that our pension has an impact on the environment at all.
We clearly have a long way to go in making ‘good money’ mainstream. However, the change is happening at a really rapid rate!
Think about those numbers for a moment. How different could the world look if that 0.4% in ‘good money’ funds were to multiply to 4% or even 40%?
David Attenborough and Prince William have been in the news recently, promoting a £50m ‘earthshot’ fund, which will be awarded to 50 people/companies providing solutions to the world’s environmental problems in the next decade.
This is clearly fantastic news and will undoubtedly act as a boost, and further incentive for those trying to do good for the world with their innovative endeavours.
Just think about the future possibilities if those earthshot prize winners get the publicity they richly deserve for their efforts and as a result more of the UK’s pension wealth is directed towards their efforts.
We may just be able to have our cake and eat it; people making a difference in the world, being lauded for their efforts and having our money being put behind it! In our eyes this would make us all truly in it together, making a difference with our brightest minds and our hard-earned pennies.
Magenta Financial Planning Limited is authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority. This information is not investment advice.