Welcome to Zero. I'm Akshatrati. This week, rom-coms, sitcoms and pensions?

How often do you think about your pension, 401k or whatever it's called in your part of the world?

You know, your retirement plan.

If you're lucky enough to have one, the chances are you don't think about it very much, if at all.

It's a thing that just happens.

A small sum is taken out of your paycheck

every month and the savings grow into a sizable pot that you can tap into some time in the future.

The pot grows not just because of your continued contributions to it, but also because

legions of pension fund managers put your money to work, often by buying shares in global companies.

Add it all together and there's some $50 trillion held in pensions.

That sounds great.

Pensions have helped improve life in later years.

But there's a catch. There always is.

A good chunk of that sum is invested in fossil fuel companies, helping them

and their emissions grow as well. The why not moment has arrived. A lot of sustainable pensions

are making equal, if not more. This is a way where you could say to someone, you're worried about

the climate? Here's a great big thing you could do. Richard Curtis is not a name you might associate with pensions. He's best known as the screenwriter

behind hit British comedies like Mr. Bean, Love Actually and Bridget Jones Diary. Richard

also founded an annual comedy TV show on the BBC called Comic Relief, which has raised more than

1.5 billion pounds

to combat poverty and famine around the world over the past 40 years.

In 2020, he turned his attention to pensions.

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