People over 55 control 70% of personal wealth in the U.S., thus wielding enormous power over the direction of the American economy. We can use that economic power to make a profound difference in the battle to prevent climate change. Use the following tools to make sure that your investments are not financing fossil fuel exploration and extraction. Most people don’t realize that many of their investments, including their retirement funds, may be directly financing the continued extraction, transportation, and burning of fossil fuels. This is one area where you can personally make an immediate and direct difference in creating a clean energy economy.

You can take decisive action today to be absolutely certain that your investments do not fund fossil-fuel businesses and extraction. Then you can go further to invest your assets in a positive manner that can accelerate clean energy and energy efficiency efforts. Check out your own investments today or contact your financial advisor and ask their assistance with this process. This fossil-free divestment/reinvestment action has become much much easier through the use of internet-based tools, such as the following [click on the blue type to access the websites below]:

*    FOSSILFREEFUNDS.ORG: This website allows you to easily check on any mutual fund to determine if it has any investments in oil, gas, or coal, including investments in fossil-fuel fired utilities. It provides a percentage ranking and a rating regarding the sustainability of the funds investments. It does not include bonds or bond funds in its ratings. You may use this to divest your investments away from mutual funds with poor fossil fuel records. It works best by entering the 5-letter fund name in its search bar.

You may also use this website in a positive manner to select the best mutual funds that are totally free of any investments in companies that have any links to making profits from the continued extraction, transportation, and use of fossil fuels.

*    CARBON CLEAN 200: AsYouSow.org in association with Corporate Knights compiles a list of the top 200 international corporations with annual revenues over $1 billion that are seriously addressing climate change by limiting fossil fuel usage. These 200 companies have collectively outpaced the MSCI All Country World Index by over 34% in gains over the last 5 years. The stocks of these top 200 firms offer a good place to invest in the clean economy future.

*    THE FORUM FOR SUSTAINABLE AND RESPONSIBLE INVESTIMENT: This organization provides a detailed look at 180 mutual funds [as of 4/2022] that are available to invest in that have been carefully screened for various positive climate investments and also policies that exclude fossil-fuel companies. This provides an excellent source of positive non-fossil fuel investment opportunities to make a difference with your assets.

*    GOFOSSILFREE.ORG: This website is project of 350.org [a prominent source of action and information regarding climate change]. While this site does not provide a method to check investments, it does provide excellent information regarding divestment of fossil fuel companies, as well as a list of over 1,500 organizations and institutions [non-profits, educational, government, etc.] that have divested from fossil fuels.

*    GREENAMERICA.ORG: This organization provides an excellent list of mutual funds that you can invest in that completely avoid any fossil fuel investments.