The eco guide to using your money

Switch to an ethical bank account and invest in renewable energy, not fossil fuels

Giving to charity, while highly recommended, does not make you an activist. It makes you a charity donor. Great in its own right, but move your bank account and then you're edging into activist territory. As motivation, read a new report from Christian Aid that unpicks the global banking industry, zeroing in on the Big Four, which hold almost all of our money. What emerges is a picture of a system rife with dysfunction.

Despite the falling costs for renewables and their increasingly swift take-up, your money, via private banks, still primarily bankrolls fossil fuels. If this continues, by 2050 the global economy will have invested $23tn into fossil fuels, sinking the targets of the globally agreed Paris Agreement, our best hope of avoiding catastrophic climate change.