News and Analysis | Richard Ravelin | September 21, 2022

Why we need to accelerate the move to a fossil fuel-free society – and how that will help you

More and more of us are making greener choices when it comes to our everyday lives. Electric car sales are on the rise, we choose to recycle more, and now lots of us are looking to insulate our homes to save money on energy bills and reduce our carbon footprint.

Many of these endeavours are being heralded by world leaders and political organisations as the fight against climate changes goes on. And now, a ground-breaking study from Oxford University has told of the economic benefit that could be had if we all committed to living a more environmentally friendly life.

Their researchers have concluded that making the switch from fossil fuels to renewables, such as wind or solar, now makes perfect sense because they are cheaper than they have been in the past. In fact, they go further: predicting the world could save as much as $10 trillion by 2050 if world leaders get to work immediately. Additionally, Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and the resulting energy crisis, should, if anything, accelerate the transition to low-cost sources as this will bring further benefits both to the economy and the planet, according to the research team.

So, our message is simple: act now and make the switch to avoid a climate catastrophe. Wind, solar, bioenergy and hydroelectricity sources have been in our arsenal for years, and used to be relatively expensive compared to the energy produced. Now that’s no longer the case, we need to be utilising them more.

According to Government data, we have been slowly doing that. Coal production, for example, fell to a record low in 2020, just before the coronavirus pandemic. Since 2000, production using oil and gas has fallen by 5.1 percent each year. Meanwhile, the use of renewables has gone up. Our bioenergy usage in 1990 was 0.3 percent, for example, but by 2020 this had grown to 11 percent. Coal, on the other hand, has gone down: reducing from 31.3 percent in 1990 to just 3.4 percent in 2020. So, there are green shoots.

But we need to be faster and more vigorous. We should be building more wind farms, encouraging more households to adopt solar panels, and promoting the use of greener energy wherever we can. Incentives such as Government-backed grants would make it more attractive to do so.

Campaigns and material need to be green-focused and feed through to people’s everyday lives; with stark warnings on what will happen if we don’t act. Politicians need to be more vocal and develop policy around activities which don’t threaten our environment. And then, there are the businesses and organisations. They should strive to be as eco-friendly as possible and actively promote green issues in their workplace and among their workforce.

So, aside from these things, what can you do personally and how can Path Financial help? If you’re looking to green-up, your finances can be a good place to start. Did you know reviewing your pensions and investments can have 21 times more impact when it comes to the environment than changing your everyday habits? That means there is, potentially, a huge benefit to having one of our financial advisers help you.

We will make sure your investments, pensions, savings and other money are only put into activities which preserve the planet rather than pollute it. That’s our central promise. None of your cash will go into things which harm the environment. We will go through your finances with you, come up with a plan and work to shift your money.

We are experts in ethical, ESG and impact strategies for green pensions & investments, offering ethical financial advice & wealth management.

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