Make My Money Matter has launched the 21x Club, a new initiative that brings together a diverse range of influential voices to help highlight the power of pensions in combating climate change.
21x Club launched at COP26 with celebrity supporters including Stephen Fry, Mary Robinson, Jo Swinson, Kelly MacDonald, Peter Capaldi and Christiana Figueres, executive secretary of the UN framework convention on climate change, as well as companies including Ikea, Aviva and Innocent Drinks. The club aims to highlight what it describes as the ‘often-overlooked power of pensions in tackling the climate crisis’ and driving public action on green finance.
The 21x Club was inspired by research conducted by Make My Money Matter, Route2 and Aviva, which discovered that greening your pension is 21 times more effective at reducing your carbon footprint than quitting flying, becoming vegetarian, and switching to a green energy provider combined.
£800bn of UK pension money has been committed to robust net zero strategies since 2020. However, nearly £2 trillion in funds have yet to align with the Paris Climate Agreement – a deal struck six years ago – with the majority of large UK schemes yet to act.
Make My Money Matter co-founder Richard Curtis says: “Across the world, there’s $50 trillion invested through our pensions. Just imagine what that money could achieve. Clean energy, affordable housing, medical research and more. A host of businesses and new technologies which help tackle the climate crisis, not fuel the fire. Investments which combat inequality and injustice, and help build a more sustainable, resilient economy.
“That’s why I’m so delighted to help launch the 21x Club – a group of passionate, imaginative leaders and organisations each committed to using the hidden superpower of our pensions to build this better world. COP26 presents our last best hope to tackle the climate crisis, and our money must be at the heart of those efforts.”
Author, writer and presenter supporting the campaign Stephen Fry says: “If you had asked me a year or so ago how a normal person could most affect climate change, I suspect that changing one’s pension would have come very low down on my guest list – well below committing to eat less roast beef or buying a new bicycle.
“But it does indeed turn out that we can make our money matter. It’s something of a magic bullet. If we stop investing in fossil fuels or gambling, and instead invest in businesses that are going to change the world. The size of this concept is shocking – trillions and trillions of cold hard cash that could be working every day to fight climate change.”
United Nations framework convention on climate change executive secretary Christiana Figueres says: “Every pension counts – but here is the trick. Because of the time value of carbon, a green pension today is much more valuable than a green pension tomorrow. So let’s get on with it and make our money truly matter.”
Aviva chief responsible investment officer Steve Waygood says: “There can be no question that money talks. Indeed, investing responsibly is one of the most powerful tools to have personal positive impact. I’ve seen first-hand the power of money to do good. Wherever the real asset owners – the end beneficiaries – demand change, the power can be incredible. Great to see Make My Money Matter make yet another great intervention. The 21x club will wake people up to the power of their money and help citizen investors change the world.”