Getting the Nation Talking

This was a very recent mission for Make My Money Matter - a not for profit that works to transform the financial system, so it puts people and planet on a par with profit.

We all know that almost everybody accepts that climate change is affecting the planet. And many of us are trying to take steps in our own lives, to minimise our own carbon footprint: whether that’s eating less meat, taking fewer flights, recycling stuff or just switching appliances off around the house. But research shows that one behavioural change makes 21 times more difference than all of these other actions put together: moving your pension. 

That’s because the entire fossil fuel industry is powered by ordinary people’s hard-earned savings (£88 billion in British funds alone). And crucially by their lack of interest, when it comes to where their pension money goes (only 10% of British pension holders say they know a lot about this and only 29% are aware that their pension might be causing climate change) no one is doing anything about it. 

This campaign set out to cut through the boredom and reach the millions of people who care about the environment but are unwittingly invested in fossil fuels. 

To do this, we had to shock people out of their apathy, so we turned national treasure Olivia Colman into the disgusting fossil fuel boss Oblivia Coalmine – to thank savers for their support. After all, nothing gets people's attention like the idea that they've been tricked. Then having raised awareness of the issue, we’d provide tools on the Make My Money Matter site, to help people find out more and make the switch. 

Take a look at Oblivia in action here.

To increase the impact of the campaign, we launched it just two days before COP28 which was being hosted in Abu Dhabi. This COP was being run by the CEO of one of the world’s leading fossil fuel companies, and was being referred to as ‘The Fossil Fuel COP’. 

The campaign generated huge levels of awareness, with over 300 media articles published and 14 Million organic views generated. Greta Thunberg even retweeted it!

In research done only a month after launch, the likelihood to shift to a green pension has rocketed by 50% (from 32% pre, to 48% post). And while apathy will obviously stop some of these following through on their good intentions, thousands have already visited the Make My Money Matter site to take the first steps.