I love this from Jeremy Grantham, Co-Founder and Chief Investment Strategist of GMO (Boston US). It came across my desk last week as I reviewed ethical investment opportunities for our clients and around the same time as Greta Thunberg made her moving address to the UN on Climate Change which had many of us asking what can we do to help?
"WHAT SHOULD INVESTORS DO ABOUT CLIMATE CHANGE?
What I'm hoping you will do, first of all, is vote for green politicians. I don't care what party they belong to. It might surprise you to learn that all the great US environmental law of the past 100 years came from Republicans.
Second, lobby investment firms to be a bit greener and encourage them to lean on the companies in their portfolios to do the same. Push them hard. Cash in some of your career risk units. You will at least be able to look your children in the eye. You may even feel better. And your firm may be able to attract more of the best kind of young recruits who are beginning to care very much more about these issues than we older folk collectively do.
We're racing to protect more than our portfolios from stranded assets and other climate change impact. That I believe is easy enough. But we have a much more important job. We're racing to protect not just our portfolios, not just our grandchildren, but our species. So get to it." - Jeremy Grantham
Grantham expresses a sense of urgency on climate change not often seen in the investment community and reminds the wealthy that they have a unique opportunity to make a difference, NOW, in a variety of ways. The full read of this report is long but worthwhile for investors who have an urge to help save our planet. Read it here. If you'd like my help to identify meaningful ethical investment opportunities as part of your wealth management strategy drop me an email.