Honestly, I don´t know what to do, but not continue what have been always done

When I was a child visiting Estonia, Pärnu with my friend about 20 years ago we took a part in a raffle. My friend won a ballpoint pen and I won a plastic bag. I was so disappointed! To my friend it was hilarious that my price was PLASTIC BAG! The most invaluable thing ever.

You got it for free in every shop in Finland when you bought something. But at that time most Estonians still remembered the first plastic bags, what kind of prints those had, school kids carried their books in them and people secretly compared who had the fanciest one, they were precious.

I miss that time, when plastic bags were rare. Oil and industry around it has been catastrophic to this planet. Don't let anyone to fool you to think that people are just not capable to invent anything to replace plastic. There is capability and skill, but the money is elsewhere.

Siim at Bondi beach, Sydney, Australia

I would love to live in the world where honest governments regulate plastic and all natural resources. Now it's mostly up to companies image, if their customers are environmentally aware, they don't offer plastic bags, if they don't care, then, have a free bag! I promise you, your life quality will not drop if you have your own bag with. So what you do as consumer does matter!

It's crazy that when you buy environmentally friendly products you have to pay more. There should be super high taxes for products that harm our planet and our health. Fridge that consumes less power should be cheaper and the one that consumes more should cost more, now it's totally opposite. Being environmentally sustainable should be available to everyone!

I read recently from Naomi Klein book This Changes Everything: Capitalism vs. The Environment, that transportation of goods via international waters is not calculated to any countries carbon footprint. All these crazy things; Norwegian salmon shipped to Thailand to be packed and then shipped back, is not calculated to Norwegian or Thailand´s carbon footprint, or any of the countries footprint that are consuming that salmon. The price to do this kind of super polluting thing should be seen in the high price of the product, but no, this way the price is lower than locally produced and packed product. There we have it, another good reason to buy local products, to limit this kind of madness. One of the reason for my big carbon footprint is definitely transportation, luckily I'm vegan so I might have just a regular (huge) westerners carbon footprint.

I was in Örebro, Sweden recently for work. Örebro is 5th or 7th largest city in Sweden, there is beautiful big lake nearby and river flows through the town. But at that time there was huge drinking water problem in Örebro. City didn't open its fountains and everywhere was signs not to waste water. As one of my colleagues said "But this is Sweden! How can that be!" There are limits, even in Sweden, for natural resources.

Colleagues at Örebro, Sweden

Climate change is one of the key factor affecting long-term risks in investing world. Investors have the right to know about the risks of the companies they invest into. FSB, Financial Stability Board monitors this. Climate change affects for example if proceed of the business depends on the available water and because of the drought caused by the climate change the company might be in difficulty or cease its operations altogether. Risks are changes in value of shares. In the future, fossil energy sources and their dependent companies can become worthless because they can not be used or demand ends. That is why companies need to be prepared for reforms in time.

Due to investments, companies selling fossil fuels are increasingly looking for places to get raw materials so that the value of their shares would not collapse. The value of the company will not collapse if it has to show that it will have as much raw material in the future, as it has now. That is why, for example, Shell ceased to develop its own sun and wind power because its value fell. Shell had to move its money to where all the other fossil fuels trading companies, exploring Arctic for oil wells, deep-sea drilling etc. Because of this, big companies will not be helping to fight climate change, they just can not, without actually collapsing their own businesses.

Political decision-making far outweighs the pace of progress and direction. Unfortunately, now is the time when politics serves big companies. But let´s not forget that politics should be serving humans. We should remember what kind of tools of power we have. There is huge need to be active and not just go with the flow and accept what is given. There is huge need to have informed investors, and I'm not just talking about financial market, but what we all do every day, be conscious consumer. Then maybe the politics will follow.

Mr. Markku Kaustia, Aalto University´s professor for finance is currently charting what role of the financial market can play in combating climate change. In Finnish finance magazine (Viisas Raha, 2/2017) "Totuttu tapa ei takaa tulosta" ("A proven way does not guarantee the result") article he says that ethical products, funds, flood the market to answer the queries. Now that children have learned since small kids to make ethical choices in the store, they are more likely to choose investment products on these same grounds.

That is good to hear, so let´s make sure they have something sustainable to invest into.