Sustainable Investments in Times of Climate Change and Capitalism Crisis

Money and capital, markets and financial instruments - it's a real jungle out there. So tempting when companies advertise - and they all do nowadays - that they are "green", "conscious", and "climate-neutral". Let's see if there really is something to it, and if you can actually invest your savings in the capital markets with a clear conscience, or even make a profit. You do not need any prior knowledge, and also no existing fortune in order to consider meaningfully, how economics and investment could potentially function pro climate - because that concerns us all - and we all should know a little better! No investment recommendations in this book! Also, no mention of investments for which anyone else including the author have decided. Here, nothing is sold! But an entrance is provided as to what you should pay attention to, if you want to reconcile your investments with your conscience. That may not necessarily, at least not directly, prove to be yield-promoting. The concern of this book is not the "ethical" investment of money - which includes other values such as peacekeeping, freedom, human dignity, cultural diversity, social justice to name just a few - but it is specifically about sustainability. Or, rather, to show where sustainability is not practiced by the allegedly green companies. We all - as investors as well as consumers - are actually fooled by a marketing tool. However, it may well be that the demand for sustainability is increasingly being transformed into an ethical factor. Much of the recent criticism of capitalism, which is the subject of the second part of this book, points in this direction. We therefore have to discuss some urgent matters with regards to our economic system as such.