1. Move your money
Move Your Money – Why?
The great majority of current fossil fuel reserves will need to remain unburned if the emissions targets set in the Paris Agreement (to remain below a 1.5℃ rise from pre-industrial temperatures) are to be met. Yet oil, coal and gas companies have infrastructure already in place to extract three times that amount and are investing billions of dollars to find and extract even more.
Most banks lend your money to support these fossil-fuel developments, but there are some that don’t. By moving your money from a bank that lends to fossil fuel companies to one that doesn’t, you can reduce the ability of these banks to lend to large oil, coal and gas producers. The same applies to moving investments/ pension funds out of fossil fuel extraction and ideally, into ‘green’ funds. Many have done so, from the Church of England to the Intensive Care Society; from over 100 UK Universities to the Wellcome Trust.
According to Which? magazine, six of the most well-known banks are responsible for $853bn of fossil fuel investment between 2016-22, but alternatives exist (see table below).
Take Action!
It’s easy to move your bank account. It costs nothing (indeed, some banks offer an incentive to move). It’s easy (taking only 20 minutes or so). It’s also painless: all your direct debits etc safely move too.
If you are a business, MotherTree offer a switching service. You can apply for this on their website
For individuals, Which? list the greenest banks as the following, each of whom have a switching process supported by the current account switch guarantee
Nationwide provide a service that switches current accounts within 7 days
The Co-operative Bank offer incentives to switch accounts to them and advertise these promotions on their website
Finally, Triodos Bank offer support to switch to one of their accounts on their website