Okay, this is a bit of an obvious one, but also one with real teeth. The basic idea is to put your money where your mouth is. And to do this not only in the (organic) supermarket, but in the places where you really influence a major money flow.
So this means making the (dark)green choice for your:
- Mortgage
- Health insurance
- Pension
These organisations will (re-) invest your money to make an interest and some do this more greenly and justly than others. So by picking the right partner you can determine whether your money is used to support fossil fuels and the weapons industry, or is used to help clean tech start ups.
Mortgage and health insurance are the easy ones. You determine the bank and insurer where you take out the loan and health benefits. So you control this choice directly. More difficult are the pensions, where you are usually tied to a specific pension fund through your employer (at least in the Netherlands, I am not sure how this works elsewhere),
ABP Fossielvrij
My own pension fund, ABP for government employees, teachers and scientists, is the largest in the Netherlands and used to invest heavily in the fossil fuel industry. This changed when the campaign 'ABP Fossielvrij' came into action and urged the fund to divest its assets into green investment opportunities.
It was a protracted campaign - including petitions, protests, office obstructions and impending lawsuits - as the fund for a long time resisted change. Until October 2021. Then it stopped investing in fossil and instead used its money to support the green energy transition, for instance by supporting large wind farms at sea. Now ABP is one of the louder voices urging other organisations also to invest darkgreen. During the 2024 negotiations for the new Dutch government it even voluteered, with 4 other companies, to invest billions into more heat- and energynetworks.
Money rules.
Add comment
Comments