“I’ve been to a few climate protests but this was one of the most effective I’ve seen.”
– Lowell, a young Positive Money supporter
On Thursday 11th July a group of Positive Money staff, supporters and activists from Fossil Free London, a grassroots divestment group, gathered outside the Bank of England.
We were there on behalf of nearly 10,000 people, who are all calling for the Bank to stop fuelling climate change and start directing money towards our transition to a green economy.
Since 2009 the Bank of England has created £445 billion of new money in a process termed ‘quantitative easing’ (QE), and used it to buy assets from financial markets. This new money has ended up subsidising fossil fuel companies, including the likes of Shell and BP. Speculation is mounting that the Bank will undertake more QE in response to uncertainty around Brexit so we propose – and thousands agree – that if more QE is necessary, we should use these newly created of billions of pounds to decarbonise our economy and fund the green transition we desperately need, not continue subsidising the fossil fuel industry.
