Change your bank to help change the world

Climate change is the biggest single threat facing the future of our planet and everyone will need to act if the predicted crisis is to be avoided. eCommonSense founder and CEO Andy Scothern explains that simply by changing our bank accounts, we all can make a difference and start shaping the agenda before it’s too late.
 
51 Billion tonnes!
 
That’s how much Co2 and Co2 equivalents human society emits into the atmosphere each year.
 
It’s hard to imagine how much that is, but if there was a motorway with 47 lanes to the moon and all lanes were full of 44 tonne articulated lorries all made from, and carrying a full load of bricks made of Co2, you’d be somewhere close. Safe to say, it’s a lot. To stay within the 1.5 degrees safety margin for global warming, we must get this imagined traffic jam to the moon cleared by 2050 or face potentially catastrophic changes to the climate and society. I’m not going to get into the details here, but a quick google search will yield plenty to have nightmares about.
 
1.5 degrees doesn’t sound much hotter than it is now, but when you put it into the context of the fragility of the ‘goldilocks zone’ of our planet it’s worth noting that during the last ice age when the world was a total ball of ice, it was only about 5 degrees colder than it is now and last time there was no ice anywhere on earth i.e. it was a total state of ‘Greenhouse earth’ and crocodiles existed at the North pole, it was only about 5 degrees warmer, so we’re only operating in a window of 10 degrees. With that frame of reference, 1.5 degrees now seems a lot, especially when the global average temperature is 15 degrees.
 
Climate change is massive and mind-boggling in every way. There are so many contributors and for some, it seems so far away that it’s easy to think that you’ve either got nothing to do with it or that you can do nothing about it. In some respects, you’d be right, as many of the solutions seem to be difficult to do, involve loads of personal sacrifice (for very little perceived global benefit), should be the job of the government or are simply too little too late.
 
“Don’t eat meat, don’t have kids, don’t have a car, forgo foreign holidays, get rid of your gas boiler, change your lightbulbs, insulate and retrofit your home, decarbonise your lifestyle… in fact, just stop living.”
 
There’s no question that if we give up all these things, then it’s going to be hard to enjoy life at all.
 
So, what do humans tend to do in such dilemmas? We do nothing and say things like: “Technology will save us, the government will step in, it won’t be as bad as they are saying (hopefully) and we all go back to normal, close our eyes and our ears and keep living the dream.”
 
There’s talk about planting loads of trees, which will help, but a tree can absorb 1 tonne of CO2 over 100 years or an acre of trees can absorb about 2.5 tonnes per year, so there’s not enough land for that to be the solution, so we need to do more – much, much more!
 
So, what can we all do as businesses and as individuals? Well, as is ever the way with societal change, you need to follow the money or more accurately, move the money. Throughout history, government subsidies and taxes and have elevated and crushed industries, as has access to finance. We can’t do much about the government except vote in elections, but we can influence the ability of the fossil fuel industries ability to access investment. 
 
How? Well, the top 5 banks in the UK for funding climate change industries are in descending order: Barclays, HSBC, Santander, Natwest & Lloyds. 
 
Collectively they have invested hundreds of billions into hugely damaging fossil fuel industries since the Paris climate accord; Investment that might otherwise have been channelled into renewable energy and businesses that are trying to get to Carbon Zero, including the high carbon manufacturers such as cement, bricks, steel and transport to mention a few.
 
It’s all too easy for us all to point the finger at these manufacturers and say it’s their responsibility, while we all use their products every day and at the same time, many of the readers of this article will have significant cash deposits and other assets held by these five banks.
 
This may be a bit out of a radical idea for many people, but if the construction products industry moved our bank accounts to a bank that does not invest in fossil fuels, a powerful message would be sent to the market that the banks need to change. You may think that the banks are already changing or that will not change anything.
 
First of all, there are numerous senior executives for whom banking and big oil careers are a revolving door, so don’t expect those turkeys to vote for Christmas.
It’s also worth noting that the oppressive and racist regime of apartheid collapsed in 1990 when European countries stopped investing in their economy and the Soviet Union collapsed at the end of 1991 when the finances dried up, so money matters.
 
Of course, it sounds like a pain to move banks (it's not- see note below), but it is nothing compared to the economic and societal damage that climate change is predicted to cause in the next 30 years. 
NOTE: The Current Account Switch Guarantee means your new bank will switch your payments and transfer your balance, and your old bank will take care of closing your old account. So you don’t need to worry​.
https://www.currentaccountswitch.co.uk/Pages/Home.aspx
 
History has shown that change happens when enough people demand it. This is the chance for the building supplies sector to lead the way by taking some simple steps that send out a clear message to the rest of the building industry. No doubt there will be more things that we can do, which I hope to explore in future articles, but by acting together now we can start to make a difference.

How to-tips
 
Actions you can take to make your cash make a difference to climate change:
 
1.   Write to your bank to ask what their investment policy is in regards to ethical matters, including the environment and fossil fuels.   
2.  Research alternative banks that have more ethical investment policies  
3.   Switch to a bank that has a more responsible approach to fossil fuel investments and inform your existing bank why you are moving.
NOTE: The Current Account Switch Guarantee means your new bank will switch your payments and transfer your balance, and your old bank will take care of closing your old account. So you don’t need to worry​.
  
4.   If you are a business- inform your customers, staff and suppliers why you are moving banks.  
5. Promote your climate change stance on communications such as email signatures, social media, promotional materials and on your website.  

 Useful links:
https://www.ethicalconsumer.org/money-finance/banks-climate-change-environmental-crisis
https://ethical.net/climate-crisis/fossil-fuel-divestment-101-a-complete-guide-to-divesting-your-money-uk/
https://www.energylivenews.com/2021/01/29/almost-80-of-barclays-and-hsbc-customers-unaware-of-their-banks-fossil-fuel-investments/

#divest, #banks funding climate change, #ethical banking,   #global warming, #barclays, #HSBC, #Santander, #Natwest