Article
Ingmar Rentzhog
12 w
•
•
The Ultimate Climate Solution: It's Time to Move the Money💰
I have some very positive news. We have the money we need to solve the climate crisis. More than 3 percent of all the money in the world is currently invested in the fossil industry by you, me, and everyone else who has pension savings, pays taxes – or simply has a bank account. If we can move that money to where it's needed, we’ll be well on our way to creating a better future.
There is a lot of amazing climate action happening out there. Renewables are being built out at record speed globally. China’s carbon emissions are expected to peak this year, much sooner than expected, and in the EU, an unprecedented collapse in the coal and gas electricity generation has led to a record drop in power sector emissions.
Unfortunately, the problems are increasing as well. We have just crossed the 1.5°C threshold for an entire year. The average global sea surface temperature reached 20.97°C in January, breaking the already alarming heat record from last year. The Gulf Stream (AMOC) is on a severe tipping course, and we have now had four consecutive years when insurance losses from natural catastrophes have topped $100 billion.
Despite all these alarming warnings, many countries with oil and gas reserves are expanding their production. And if this wasn’t bad enough, most other countries are also increasing their fossil fuel subsidies, which now amount to almost two-thirds of all the money that governments around the world spend on healthcare for their citizens.
This can’t continue. There is no way we will solve the climate crisis without focusing on the elephant in the room – Stop burning fossil fuels that represent 87% of the global CO2 emissions.
So what can we do about this?
I worked in the finance industry for 15 years until I decided to devote all my time to creating the global climate solutions platform, We Don’t Have Time, in 2017.
Drawing on these experiences, it’s obvious to me that the solution spells M.O.N.E.Y.
A lot of people say that we don't have enough money to transition to a fossil-free economy. However, the truth is that we have more than enough money for this transition, and the long-term return on investment will be significantly higher if we reallocate our financial resources.
Take a look at these numbers:
- Over 6,500 pension funds and other institutional investors hold bonds and shares in coal, oil, and gas companies to an amount of $ 3.05 trillion USD.
- The world’s nations subsidized fossil fuels with $7 trillion USD in 2022 , an increase of $2 trillion in just two years.
- IEA estimates that $ 4.5 trillion USD in clean energy investments are needed annually to limit warming to 1.5°C.
All this money flowing in the wrong direction is not just someone else’s money. It is my money, your money, and everyone else’s around the world who pays taxes, has a bank account, or has invested money in a pension fund.
A recent example is Sweden’s largest pension fund, AP7, home to savings of 5.7 million Swedes, more than half of the country’s population. This fund invests in Saudi Aramco, one of the biggest, most profitable, and expansive oil companies in the world. Most of these people have no idea that their savings are invested this way.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dXZS6K7p5Cc
Same with fossil fuel subsidies. This is when governments are using the taxpayers' money to support oil, gas and coal companies, of whom many have made record-profits since the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
Politicians often argue that these subsidies are needed to support the poor, for example by lowering the price of diesel and gasoline. That’s often not true. Many reports have revealed that these subsidies are mostly benefiting higher-income households, deepening global inequalities, preventing the transition to green energy, and adding more money to the fossil fuel companies’ record profits than to helping the people.
Dino Talks
$11,000,000 per minute is spent on fossil fuel subsidies. We are heading towards a climate disaster, so why do we still subsidize fossil fuels?
https://www.wedonthavetime.org/event/dinotalks
To learn more about fossil fuel subsidies and their effect on people, economy, and planet, dig into We Don’t Have Time’s broadcast series Dino Talks.
Moving the money gets momentum
Moving the money in a green direction is not only possible. It has already started happening. Barclays has announced it will stop investing in new oil and gas projects. The Dutch pension fund PFZW has sold its holdings in fossil fuel companies, and the Church of England and Harvard University are doing the same.
The number of institutions that are moving their money is constantly increasing; you can track them on 'We Don't Have Time.'.
A main reason why this shift is now accelerating is the COP28 agreement, in which 197 countries agreed to transition away from fossil fuels. The agreement has been rightly criticized for being weak and full of loopholes, but it is nonetheless a dealbreaker in finance. Because if the world has agreed to leave a whole industry behind, why should I invest in it?
It’s not only in finance world things are starting to happen. The Biden Administration’s Inflation Reduction Act is a massive undertaking that increased green subsidies with $ 1.2 trillion USD and created other incentives to accelerate the shift to a greener economy. European Union, the Green New Deal is striving in the same direction.
However, these positive developments – and many others throughout the world – might soon be at risk of being slowed down.
The ultimate election year
2024 has been dubbed the Ultimate Election Year. An estimated two billion people – more than ever before in history – could head to the polls, as more than 50 countries plus the whole European Union are holding elections.
Some of these elections might turn out bad for the climate. And if that happens, it will be difficult to get rid of the fossil fuel subsidies or steer them in the opposite direction.
But as citizens, we will still have the power to move our money to another bank or shift our investments to greener funds. And this, in turn, will have an effect on politics. Why? Because when an increasing number of large institutional investors begin steering investments away from fossil fuel companies, fewer politicians will come to their rescue. When that happens, the fossil industry will also have to start changing.
So this year, if you have the opportunity to head for the ballots in an election, please vote to move the money. And if you have money in the bank or invested in a fund – try to make sure it is invested sustainably. If not, move it. Every dollar counts.
Join our ‘Move the Money Movement’
We Don’t Have Time's ambition is to unite all investors who believe in the power of moving the money. This includes private investors, angel investors, green funds, banks, hedge funds, venture capital firms, investment companies, and anyone making a living from finance. Together, we can push for this narrative and bring other investors on board.
We will call it 'Move The Money Movement,' and our ambition is to shift as much money as possible from fossil to green, and at the same time, create global awareness around the importance of moving the money.
I once helped a 15-year-old girl who stood alone in front of the Swedish Parliament to raise global awareness of our climate crisis. Now, let's focus on the solutions by creating a global financial movement to move the money!
Are you or your investment firm interested in being part of this initiative?
Together, We Can Move The Money💪, but We Don’t Have Time to wait!
Ingmar Rentzhog, CEO & Founder WeDontHaveTime.org, Photo Credit Stefan Borer, Blick
I would love to hear your thoughts on this topic in the comments section below. Please help me engage more people by sharing this article on social media.
Your choice matters—It's time to Move the money
An easy to follow guide on how to #MoveTheMoney as an individual, as an institutional investor or as a company.
https://wedonthavetime.org/movethemoney
Welcome, let's solve the climate crisis together
Write or agree to climate reviews to make businesses and world leaders act. It’s easy and it works.
Write a climate review
Voice your opinion on how businesses and organizations impact the climate.
Open for Climate Dialogue™
Certified accounts actively looking for your opinion on their climate impact.
0 trees planted
One tree is planted for every climate review written to an organization that is Open for Climate Dialogue™.
Download the app
We plant a tree for every new user.
•
7 w
The quality of the life in our planet relies on us ,we either destroy or contribute into building it ,,for instance if we focus on building a green environment that will be a win for everyone including the other creatures .
•
11 w
Yeah, boys. The destruction of the planet means the destruction of humans.
•
11 w
We humans, for ourselves ill purposes are creating our own destruction.
•
11 w
I invest in trine. There it does a lot of good. Check it out, see for your self!
•
•
11 w
More money moving towards green transition makes the fossil fuel industry less profitable and throws them out of business in the long run.This is where all our monies need to be channeled so that we can see a real change and transition
•
•
11 w
@esther_wanjiku_785 The best solution so far would be throwing money at green investments and rendering fossil fuel industries irrelevant and very unprofitable
•
12 w
I’m not sure people understand how capital markets work in this thread. One could sell all of their oil and gas holdings. It would have minimal to any impact on public companies and their ability to drill wells and grow production. By taking this path, you would not achieve any of the cash raise you expect as everyone is selling into a falling market price and therefore, theoretically, there would be no price if there are no buyers and the stocks go to zero. Suppose you are able to raise half of that money. You now need to invest somewhere. What companies do you buy? Do you allocate those funds to private equity (the large money managers after all have no expertise of ability to actually undertake projects, not perform due diligence on them), So, PE needs to generate a return. The large money managers all end up investing for individuals retirement and need returns to pay their plan holders. The manager has a duty to generate these returns. So, PE needs to generate income from these projects, but there are limited revenues for the projects unless you can sell to corporates, and the large utilities do not want this to happen. It sounds nice but in practice it will be a slow cycle that will take decades.
•
•
•
11 w
@sam_arnold I know very well how the financial market works! That was my career before I founded WeDontHaveTime. It is not complicated. It is not about selling fossil investments to lower their price that is the goal. It is about we must invest more in the green transition. We need to move the money there! The change will happen fast, not slow. We also need to move the subsidies. When we do that we will make fossil less profitable and the alternatives more profitable. That will have an instant effect!
•
11 w
@Rentzhog what subsidies are you referring to? IDCs?
•
11 w
@sam_arnold also, I understand the philosophy but the implementation is not practical
•
•
11 w
@Rentzhog actually it shall expedite the transition.
•
•
12 w
The funds should be chanelled towards clean energies projects that are sustainable for the planet, not these fossil fuel that are killing our planet
•
12 w
Great we need such information
•
•
12 w
It's about time that we did enlighten people on what's more important for the existence of man and coming generations.
•
•
12 w
This really makes alot of sense to me in that the power is in our own hands to boycott buying or financing fossil fuels and boom wish shall phase it out 💯
•
•
11 w
@johnte_ndeto More funds being channeled towards green investments will create a very meaningful shift
•
12 w
A very important step in the transition away from black to green💚
•
•
12 w
This is excellent way to with enough funds will help communities adopt to a climate change impact.
•
12 w
Its actually very inspiring and of benefit to see more money channeled to various projects
•
12 w
Have a look at: the price is wrong! https://www.theguardian.com/books/2024/feb/15/the-price-is-wrong-by-brett-christophers-review-why-capitalism-cant-save-the-planet
•
•
12 w
More money must be channeled towards green investments and projects.Great seeing some major finance institutions ceasing the support of new oil and gas projects and promoting clean energy diversification.
•
•
11 w
@Kevin True, the only way to create pulpable change is by encouraging more financial institutions and partners to shift their resources towards green investments
•
12 w
We are in Holland in hot pursuit of ending fossil fuel subsidies with last week a blockage of the ministry of finance after the release of a disappointing report. Promises promises… no action. A government report calculated Dutch fossil fuel subsidies to about 47 billion euros per year… that’s 5.000 euros per person per year! What better to use it for!!! Follow it all on Https://Www.xrtv.nl
•
•
•
12 w
I love this great call, if we can proof our money matters and can do better or be invested better for our sustainable planet! The better! our voting and our decisions of today or year 2024! it will define the power of many and about their money and their actions for our better tomorrow collectively.
•
12 w
@patrick_kiash Contributors to these funds and taxpayers should be given more more input in where there money is invested.
•
12 w
Hej Ingmar! Jag skulle gärna träffa dig eller prata med dig i telefon om just detta. Finns du i Stockholm? Om ja, skulle vi kunna sammanstråla i nästa vecka (9)? Om inte, ett telefonsamtal? Jag är osäker på om jag själv är medlem här, men är säker på att Föreningen Hållbara Hässleholm är med. Vänligen Viveka Wikborn
•
•
12 w
It's time to stop investing in unethical funds to send a powerful message to the fossil fuel industry that we’re taking the climate emergency seriously.
•
12 w
Why should humans funds for their own destruction?
•
12 w
@chris_ndungu Well, those who manage these funds are the ones who do the investments. As a contributor, you might not know where your funds were invested but are too keen one the returns on the investments.
•
•
12 w
@chris_ndungu the ones investing are looking for easy and quick money.
•
•
12 w
Three percent of world money is such a huge figure. We need to rethink our future or we perish. It's time we rechanneled the funds to climate change.
•
•
•
12 w
@rukia_ahmed_abdi yes. We can do this! It is our money
•
•
12 w
@rukia_ahmed_abdi The funny thing is, such funds would go a long way towards funding renewable energy and even ending world hunger. What is stopping us bar ourselves?
•
12 w
At this point oil companies need very little external capital so the equity sale would just allow for the privatization of oil companies as they have little debt. All sales and no bids would push equity prices down transferring the value to management and company employees. I challenge everyone to look at the financials of any public oil company and see if they need to raise capital through debt or equity. I think you will find that they do not.
•
12 w
@sam_arnold Don't renewables need the money?
•
•
•
12 w
@sam_arnold Oil companies have a lot of debts for fossil fuel expansion. Just have a look in this database and search for bonds: https://investinginclimatechaos.org/ But the point here is that if other bad investors step up and invest in oil when pension funds sell we still need all that money invested in the solutions. The focus is not on #divest but on where they need to go. #movethemoney now!
•
12 w
@Rentzhog look at the actual level of debt outstanding vs cash flows. XOM has $13B of debt and made $77B in cash flows from operations. They do not need outside financing.
•
12 w
Good
•
12 w
I have been banking ethically with the Co-operative Bank since 1994, in the UK, and Triodos Bank more recently. I can heartily recommend them both. Triodos is a Dutch Bank with branches in Beligium, Germany Spain and the UK Co-op: https://www.co-operativebank.co.uk/about-us/ Triodos international website: https://www.triodos.com/en/
•
•
12 w
@gea_vox I think we all have a responsibility as consumers to do due diligence and know where we are putting our money. Let us put our money where our lives are, which is in clean energy and a safer planet.
•
•
12 w
Move the Money Movement shall make its way to success. Mobilizing and consolidating the financers for channelizing the money to REs and cleaner fuels shall make a huge difference. How many financial investors are required to be united for the cause? I wish I were a financial investor. Activism in social media for raising the voice is required. As individual citizens we shall also have to invest of our time and energy for doing right thing or choosing right actors . Here, by" right thing" I mean opting for sustainable, environmental and climate friendly solutions. There is another source of fund, which should be tapped. But I prefer to post it separately because "Move the Money" demands focused attention. Moving the Money to REs and cleaner energy means better air quality and healthy life. We must move. We must act now.
•
•
•
12 w
@dipanjana_maulik Exactly.. What I like about #MoveTheMoney is that the focus is more on what to do instead of what not to do. We just need to #MoveTheMoney
•
•
11 w
@dipanjana_maulik Definitely encouraging this #MovetheMoney
•
•
12 w
This is very inspiring!
•
12 w
Great initiative Ingmar! When I got engaged in the climate issue in 2018 I started to invest in start ups having a business idea that will somehow be part of solving the climate issue, I also at the same time also moved my stock-listed portfolio to funds and companies working with their transitions to become sustainable (not in fossil fuel companies). It was an ethical and financial decision since within some time companies not working in line with the Paris agreement will be stranded assets. So I’m on your initiative, thanks for bringing on more investors! I’ll try to keep on spreading the word.
•
12 w
One more thing; I don’t agree with Johan Floren saying that it doesn’t matter if you will divest from companies, because if enough of us will do it, especially the big institutions, these companies share prices/ their market value will decrease and it will be more expensive for them to finance their business, buying other companies with shares etc. Both you and I having worked in the financial industry knows that there are none listed companies wanting to see their share price/market value decrease, they are all striving to increase their market value. So saying that it doesn’t matter is not a correct statement.
•
12 w
@Maria_Andark Absolutely! Well said!
•
•
•
12 w
@Maria_Andark Thanks Maria! maybe we can creat a TikTok Move the Money dance to get this movement viral! ;)
•
•
12 w
This financial shift proposed is not just a Solution, it's a Revolution. It's quite empowering to see how individual choices, especially in investing, can shape the future
•
•
11 w
@dickson_mutai Well said
•
12 w
I strongly believe we create a transition from fossil fuels as most countries are still making use of it . Solar still the best . Thanks
•
12 w
@aiyeola_sunday Solar best in some regions, others may need a mix of solar wind and hydro.
•
•
12 w
@aiyeola_sunday The revolution was just one person at a particular time. What I mean is, the effort has to start somewhere even if it is one country. Ethiopia seems to be headed in that direction.
•
•
12 w
Why funding fossil fuels that kill people? It's high time to shift the money to renewable energy
•
•
•
12 w
@saustine_lusanzu Exactly. It is really a no-brainer.
•
•
12 w
This is a powerful reminder of the impact that our financial decisions can have on the environment. It's time to consider divesting from fossil fuels and investing in sustainable solutions for the future.
•
•
12 w
By redirecting these investments, we could make a substantial impact on addressing climate change.
•
12 w
We have to be very intentional in investing in clean energy and de-invest in fossil fuels. I know this will come with a lot of resistance but its the bitter pill we have to swallow if we want a future
•
12 w
I agree and I saw an interview with Ray Dalio https://youtu.be/W8OXlJNorBs?si=kJNVSZaebUAxiZo6 where he agrees that the big institutional investors have the money to fund this, the trick is to prove a return on that investment. One thing we are working on with the E-liability Institute is developing a sustainable management methodology where we consider financial and environmental sustainability simultaneously. This is an ABC and E-liability model of the operations of an entire organization that traces financial metrics and environmental metrics (starting with GHG Emissions) through all operations to individual products/services. This provides the data required to help organizations reduce emissions in a profitable way. This can also be used for predictive modelling to prove future returns, because as you know there could be large upfront costs to transition but this could lead to more efficiencies and reduced costs over time, with reduced emissions. Anyway, long way of saying we are trying to help at the grass roots level 👍😁
•
•
12 w
Bank.Green is a good opportunity to check out your bank. You can select your country, then your bank.
•
•
12 w
Well formulated 👏
•
12 w
There are more than 700 investors (managing 68tn$ of assets) united at the "Climate Action 100+" network (https://www.climateaction100.org/). They claim it is better to unite the shares of investors and create pressure for decarbonizing via the Board or the Annual Shareholder Assemblys of those companies, rather than selling the shares to other investors who don´t care. What is your major response to them, as it looks like they don´t realize that their strategy does just not work...? Often I hear that the fiduciary duty requires them to spread their investments, and the last few years the value of Big Oil was rising, while Solar stocks went unfortunately significantly down. If pension funds are selling their stakes, somebody else will buy them. But: with a high pressure on the sales side the value of the stocks of pension funds would decrease, so the risks of "stranded assets" does increase for investors. All the best and much success for the Move the Money Movement, we desperately need it.
•
•
•
12 w
@juergen_a_wieland Climate Action 100 is doing good things, but no matter how you look at it, the need for funds is greater in the solutions. We need to mobilize 4.5 trillion USD annually, and these funds should appropriately be redirected from fossil investments.
•
12 w
Yes We Can!
•
12 w
This leaves one wondering why humans are funding their own destruction?
•
•
12 w
These figures are astonishing. We've been funding and effectively so, our own demise. We need to stop the oil project