Make My Money Matter is trying to persuade us to persuade pension funds not to invest in companies trashing the rain forest, with Benedict Cumberbatch taking over from Olivia Colman. Playing nasty as only Benjy can. By Lucky Generals.
MMMM hopes the campaign will see action from the pensions industry ahead of the UN’s 2025 deadline for the money men to eliminate deforestation driven by commodity trading. Products include palm oil, soy and beef (your high street burger probably.)
Rather a challenge though. MMMM says £300 billion of UK pension investments is linked to deforestation, while 2/3 of leading schemes do not even have a policy about it.
Trouble is, risk-averse pension funds always say they can’t adversely affect members’ “investment” as they’re required by law to get the best returns. As with Rachel Reeves’ plea (reasonable enough) to get them to invest more in British companies. A bit like Net Zero and doubly hard to achieve when living standards are still taking a pounding from high energy and utility costs, not to mention food prices (the reason for the rain forests still taking a hit presumably.) Look at Trump’s election success.
And does anyone pay much attention to what the UN says these days? Mega-traders like Glencore (2023 revenue $218bn) almost certainly don’t.
Cumberbatch gives it his best shot though.
MAA creative scale: 6.
