According to David Attenborough, divestment from fossil fuels and choosing to invest sustainably is one of the most important choices we can make today for the good of the future of our planet. So, despite annually increasing wildfires, a global pandemic and – at last – the acceptance that climate change is real and irreversible, why aren’t more of us investing sustainably?
Good With Money, in partnership with Liontrust, has launched a campaign to encourage all of us to think about our own futures, and those of our children, and challenge ourselves to start saving and investing sustainably.
Join the debate by answering our quick survey, and let us know your thoughts through social media using the #modernvalues hashtag.
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‘Anything we can’t do forever is, by definition, unsustainable. If we do something unsustainable, the damage accumulates, ultimately to a point where the whole system collapses.’
This is just one of the many stark warnings in David Attenborough’s witness statement for the world.
While pretty tough viewing, it would be hard not to question our own values towards sustainability having watched his new documentary ‘A Life On Our Planet’.
But, despite a growing body of evidence offered by the nation’s favourite 93-year-old naturalist, a Scandinavian teenage environmentalist, or even the current global pandemic, many of us continue to bury our heads in the sand when it comes to sustainability.
And indeed, our attitude to our finances is equally ironic – which Attenborough’s programme also reflects: he calls for divestment from fossil fuels, and points out the irony of banks and investment firms investing pension funds in fossil fuels when it’s these dirty fuels preventing the future that we are saving for.
These ironies are supported by new research from investment manager Liontrust, which reveals three quarters (74 per cent) of people say sustainability has some degree of importance in their life. Yet only two fifths (42 per cent) are currently investing sustainably.
Of the 58 per cent not investing sustainably, two thirds (63 per cent) are aware that the possibility to invest sustainably exists, a third (29 per cent) say they are not sure about the possibility of sustainable investment and only 7% are not aware at all.
By far the biggest reason for people not investing sustainably (given by 32 per cent of those polled) is that it impacts on returns. However, data from Morningstar investment analysts released in June shows almost six out of 10 of 745 Europe-based sustainable funds delivered higher returns than equivalent conventional funds over the past decade (and also the last one, three and five years!).*
Other reasons people give for not investing sustainably are:
- 12 per cent blame lack of knowledge / need to research
- 9 per cent say they plan to look into it for the future
- 5 per cent blame a lack of time or money or opportunity
- 5 per cent say they’ve not thought about it
- 7 per cent say there are too many conflicting views about sustainability
- 7 per cent say there’s limited availability /can’t diversify their portfolio enough
- 7 per cent say there’s not enough transparency or trust from the companies.
At Good With Money we want to know how our readers feel about this topic -what are your #modernvalues? So please complete this one minute survey and let us know your view. Share it with your friends. Join the debate.
#modernvalues
*https://www.morningstar.com/content/dam/marketing/emea/shared/guides/ESG_Fund_Performance_2020.pdf
