Wealth of Advice, Swale House, Mandale Business Park, Durham, DH1 1TH
While most Brits are well aware of how to reduce their carbon footprint through changing their behaviours, more than two thirds (67 per cent) don’t know how to switch to a ‘green pension’, research from Scottish Widows has revealed.
Scottish Widows’ second annual Green Pensions Report found that there is growing appetite for responsible retirement savings propositions among employers and employees, with nearly three quarters (74 per cent) of savers expressing a keen interest in obtaining more information about sustainable options for retirement savings.
The group also highlighted the potential climate benefit of switching, with its analysis showing that, by opting for a green pension, members could save up to 386 million tonnes of carbon emissions annually, the equivalent of 11 return flights from London to New York per person.
Despite this, savings and pensions ranked last in terms of perceived impact on climate change amongst a range of factors in an individual’s lifestyle, and almost one in seven (13 per cent) did not realise that there are differing environmental impacts across pension funds.
In addition to this, only 10 per cent of employees surveyed had fully switched to green pensions, primarily due to a lack of information and access to green pensions.
Indeed, according to the survey, nearly a quarter (23 per cent) of companies surveyed do not offer green or ethical pensions to their employees.
Given this, Scottish Widows urged the government, employers and pension providers to make sustained efforts to educate the UK workforce about the potential environmental, social, and financial benefits of responsibly invested pensions.
Scottish Widows’ responsible investment lead, Shipra Gupta, said: “Our latest Green Pensions Report demonstrates a critical need for heightened awareness and action regarding the role of green pensions in mitigating carbon emissions.
"Understanding of the climate crisis has changed dramatically over the last few years, with countries and organisations being bolder in their net zero targets and individuals making changes in their lifestyles to cut their household carbon emissions.
"Yet most people are still unaware that pensions are one of the most powerful tools at our disposal to make real progress towards net zero.
“This report serves to spread awareness for individuals, employers and policymakers alike.”
If you want a better view of what your future could be, we'll have a chat and work out if we make a good fit for you and your financial picture.
Wealth of Advice are authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority, reference number 563909. This website is for information purposes only and is not personal advice.
We are committed to providing products and service of the very highest standards. If you feel that we haven't lived up to your expectations in any way, however, we would like to know so we can put things right for you. If you have a complaint, make sure you contact us directly. Accordingly, we will do all we can to resolve your complaint by the end of the next business day. However, if we can't do this, we will write to you within five working days to tell you what we have done to resolve the problem, or acknowledge your complaint and let you know when you can expect a full response. Furthermore, if we haven't issued our response within eight weeks from the date you first raised your complaint, or if you're dissatisfied with our response, you can ask the Financial Ombudsman Service - www.financial-ombudsman.org.uk - for an independent review. The Financial Ombudsman Service will only consider your complaint once you've tried to resolve it with us, so please take up your concerns with us first and we'll do all we can to help.
Wealth of Advice Ltd is a company registered in England and Wales, company number 07709624.
VAT Number: GB131946515