Protesters Target London’s Stock Exchange
The latest move by environmental activist group, Extinction Rebellion, has been to glue protesters to the doors of the London Stock Exchange in an effort to get Britain to take action in the fight against climate change.
Things have been gradually heating up with the protests becoming increasingly tense as the week has progressed with over 1088 arrests having been made already. The group has caused mass disruptions across London at popular tourist sites and businesses, such as Oxford Circus, Waterloo Bridge and the Shell building, but has now set its sights on the city’s financial hub – Canary Wharf.
The slogan “business as usual” was brandished by protesters in black suits and red ties to shine a light on the impact of industrial pollution on the environment. The group is demanding the declaration of a state of ecological emergency to reach a target of net zero emissions by 2025 – an ambitious task to say the least.
Although industrial development still has a massive hand in elevated pollution levels, the finance industry has seen a greater push in the last few years to create sustainable investment alternatives, especially in the ETF space. The SUSA ESG ETF in particular has been performing extremely well since the start of 2019, rising 20% – if you hadn’t heard about it until now, go check it out!
Perhaps these protests and the multitude of new initiatives emerging can drive the next phase of environmentally conscious businesses, and make ESG investments the place to be in the coming years. We can only hope!
