“Pensions are the peoples money”

Green Pensions has emerged from my many years working within the pensions world and realising how little we know about where our pension money is invested and the influence it has on society and the world around us.

Workplace pensions and individual pensions are such overwhelmingly complex financial products that people are put off trying to understand them in any depth.

And yet we should understand them as our pension money is invested into companies and industries linked to fossil fuels, pollution, deforestation, carbon emissions and the destruction of nature.

In the UK alone, around £3 trillion sits within pension funds. This is our money, invested on our behalf, with huge influence over the kind of world we are creating and the way our economy operates.

Even though nearly 80% of us who save say we would like our pension money invested so it does good for people and planet, we do not have the knowledge or confidence to know how to go about it.

Only 9% of us have sufficient savings to make us eligible for financial advice. That leaves the vast majority making significant financial decisions with no access to support or explanation.