So you’ve tried green cleaning, riding to work and eating green. You’re a real green machine! But without your realising it, your money could be funding the very things you spend so much time and energy working to change.
That’s right – a lot of places where you keep your hard-earned cash like banks and super could be using it to fund coal plants, uranium mines or habitat destruction. In fact a new report by Market Forces shows that the Big Four banks have invested a total of $3.8 billion in coal and gas projects on the Great Barrier Reef since 2008.
Meanwhile, the Carbon Tracker Initiative has warned that investors in fossil fuels are dicing with environmental and economic disaster. In fact if global emission targets are to be met, then two-thirds of the oil, gas and coal reserves owned by listed companies can never be exploited.
So while it’s clear that the Australian government and industry needs to clean up their investments, we can also make a big difference by making sure our own money is being investing in ways that don’t harm our environment. And what better time than right now – during Ethical Money Week.
Then you can sit back and relax, knowing that your money, just like you, is working hard to make our world a better place.