Can Your Pension Shape The Future Of The Ocean?
How you can truly save for your future
Each month, part of your salary disappears into a pension fund. Most of us never think about where it goes. Yet that money is not sitting still. It is invested in companies that shape the world you will retire into. Some protect the planet. Others destroy it. This is how your savings can help or harm the ocean, and what whales can teach us about rebuilding balance.
At the Blue Earth Summit in London last week, I spent much of my time talking about whales. Not on a stage, but one to one with people who stopped by to chat. There were business owners, investors, and entrepreneurs, all eager to discuss how protecting the ocean can drive innovation and economic growth.
I explained that whales are not just symbols of awe and wonder in the ocean. They are part of how the planet keeps itself stable. Healthy whale populations support marine ecosystems, help fish stocks recover, and contribute to the balance of the ocean. Most people nodded, surprised by how practical that idea felt.
The irony stayed with me. Many of those same people work for companies whose pension schemes invest in the very industries that harm whales and the wider ocean. While we spoke about sustainability, their company payrolls were processing pensions that funnel money into fossil fuel extraction and deforestation.
That contradiction has become one of the most important and least discussed parts of the climate story.
What A Pension Really Is
If you are employed in the UK, a percentage of your salary leaves your payslip each month and goes into a pension. Your employer adds their contribution, and the total is managed by a pension provider. The goal is to grow that money so you can use it later in life.
Your pension fund does not sit in a savings account. It is invested in shares and bonds that give companies access to real money. When a pension provider buys shares in a company, it becomes part owner of that business, raising the company’s market value and credibility. When it buys bonds, it is lending money directly, which the company repays later with interest.
So when your pension provider invests in a company, it is not an abstract transaction. It is giving that company the financial power to act. What they do with that power determines what kind of world you will retire into.
The World’s Largest Hidden Economy
In the UK, pensions hold around £3.2 trillion in assets. Across Europe and North America, the same system operates. Globally, pension funds control more than £45 trillion, making them one of the most powerful economic forces on Earth.
UK pensions invest about £88 billion in fossil fuel companies and around £300 billion in firms linked to deforestation. These investments are responsible for an estimated 330 million tonnes of CO₂ each year, on the scale of the UK’s annual domestic emissions..
Every payslip feeds this system. Every month, your money enters the global financial bloodstream that determines which industries grow and which decline.
How Pensions Fuel Fossil Expansion
Fossil fuel companies remain popular among pension funds because they have long been seen as safe and profitable. Companies such as BP, Shell, ExxonMobil, Chevron, TotalEnergies, and Glencore are some of the largest in the world. They pay regular dividends and feature prominently in major stock indices that pension funds often track automatically.
Many pension providers invest through these index funds, which means they buy shares in whichever companies dominate the market. As oil and gas companies have been central to global economies for decades, they remain embedded in the system. Most people’s pensions are invested in them by default.
This money gives fossil fuel companies the power to expand. It strengthens their balance sheets and funds projects that explore new oil fields, extend pipelines, or develop offshore rigs. According to the International Energy Agency, no new oil or gas fields can be opened if the world is to limit warming to 1.5°C. Yet fossil fuel companies continue to spend billions on new exploration, helped by pension investments.
Imagine your monthly contribution is £100. If 15% of your pension fund is invested in fossil fuels, then about £15 of your savings helps fund these projects. It provides the opportunity to buy drilling equipment, finance deep-sea exploration, or support lobbying efforts designed to weaken climate policies. Every contribution adds up to a steady flow of money keeping fossil fuel expansion alive.
The twelve largest UK providers support Exxon, Chevron, Shell, BP, Eni and TotalEnergies. Your pension is not passive. It is part of the financial current driving the climate crisis.
How Pensions Fund Deforestation
The same process applies to agriculture and commodities. Pension funds invest in major companies whose supply chains drive deforestation, including JBS, Cargill, Bunge, Wilmar International, and Sime Darby Plantation. These firms produce beef, soy, palm oil, and timber that contribute to the loss of tropical forests in the Amazon, Indonesia, and across Africa.
When your pension invests in these companies, part of your money helps finance their operations. It pays for land acquisition, machinery, and processing facilities that make deforestation possible. Clearing forests releases huge amounts of carbon and disrupts rainfall patterns. The destruction also leads to runoff that pollutes rivers and coastal waters, killing coral reefs and seagrass meadows that store carbon and shelter marine life.
The Ocean Connection
Whales depend on a stable ocean. They migrate along nutrient-rich routes, feeding where life is most abundant and giving birth where waters are calm. When the ocean overheats or loses balance, whales suffer first. The industries financed by our pensions are part of what is driving that imbalance.
At Whale and Dolphin Conservation, our mission is to protect whales and dolphins from the threats they face, from captivity and hunting to pollution and climate change. Protecting them is about more than welfare. It is about restoring the ocean systems that keep the planet’s climate in balance. Healthy seas, with thriving whale populations, absorb more carbon, regulate temperature, and sustain life on a planetary scale.
Whales are proof that when systems are healthy, everything benefits. Our financial systems can follow that same principle.
What The 2025 Report Shows
The MakeMyMoneyMatter Climate Action Report 2025 ranked the UK’s twelve largest workplace pension providers. Nest scored 5.8 out of 10. Aviva and Now: Pensions followed closely. Royal London scored 3.3 and was among the weakest on fossil fuels and deforestation. The industry average was 4.5, far below what is needed for real climate alignment.
Most employees never change their pension fund. The “default” option chosen by the provider is where the majority of money sits, which means most savers are unintentionally supporting industries that accelerate the climate crisis.
Your pension is the most powerful climate tool you never knew you had.
What You Can Do This Week
Step 1 – Identify Your Provider And Fund
Ask your HR or payroll team which provider manages your pension. Most workers are automatically placed in a default fund. You can check its climate ranking in the MakeMyMoneyMatter 2025 report.
Step 2 – Ask Three Questions
Does this fund invest in companies expanding fossil fuel extraction?
Does it invest in companies linked to deforestation?
What targets has it set to reduce financed emissions?
Step 3 – Switch Or Push For Change
Most providers now offer at least one sustainable or ethical option. If yours does not, ask your employer to change the default fund.
If one hundred people at your company each contribute £300 a month, that is £30,000 a month in pension savings. Over ten years, that becomes £3.6 million. If 15% of that money is invested in fossil fuels or deforestation, that means more than £500,000 of your collective savings is supporting environmental destruction. Redirecting it to sustainable funds could finance renewable energy, reforestation, and ocean protection instead.
Why It Matters
Pensions and oceans are both systems of trust. You rarely see how they work, but your future depends on them. One circulates money. The other circulates life.
The ocean already absorbs most of the planet’s heat and about a quarter of its carbon. It sustains the air we breathe, the food we eat, and the climate we rely on. It cannot also bear the weight of our financial choices.
Whales cannot choose the conditions they live in. We can. Every payslip is a chance to decide which systems we want to sustain. Move your money. Ask questions. Use your pension to protect the living planet that protects you.
Further Reading and References
Make My Money Matter (2025). Climate Action Report 2025. Includes rankings of the twelve largest UK workplace pension providers, £88 billion invested in fossil fuel companies, £300 billion linked to deforestation, and total financed emissions estimated at 330 Mt CO₂e.
Read the full report →Pensions Policy Institute (2025). Total Pension Scheme Assets Press Release, June 2025. Estimates total UK pension assets at approximately £3.2 trillion.
View summary →Thinking Ahead Institute (2025). Global Pension Assets Study 2025. Reports total pension assets across major markets at US $58.5 trillion (≈ £46 trillion).
Read study →International Energy Agency (2021). Net Zero by 2050: A Roadmap for the Global Energy Sector. States that no new oil and gas fields are required in a 1.5 °C pathway.
Access report →NOAA Climate.gov (2024). Reports that the ocean stores around 91 percent of excess planetary heat.
Learn more →IPCC AR6 Working Group I (2021). Summary for Policymakers, FAQ 5.1. Notes that the ocean has taken up roughly a quarter of human-produced CO₂ since the Industrial Revolution.
Read FAQ →Department for Energy Security and Net Zero (2024). UK Provisional Greenhouse Gas Emissions 2023. Estimates territorial emissions at ≈ 384 Mt CO₂e, confirming that pension-related emissions are on the same scale.
View dataset →Global Witness (2023). Deforestation and Cattle Supply Chains in Brazil. Documents links between JBS and cattle sourced from illegally deforested areas.
Read investigation →Mighty Earth (2024). Rapid Response: Soy and Cattle Deforestation Tracking. Details deforestation risks in supply chains of Cargill and Bunge.
See reports →Amnesty International (2022). The Great Palm Oil Scandal: Labour Abuses Behind Big Brand Names. Highlights Wilmar International’s role in palm-oil-linked deforestation and labour abuses.
Read report →Reuters (2023). Sime Darby Plantation Bhd Compliance Update. Covers palm-oil supply-chain reforms following a U.S. import-ban review.
Read article →Whale and Dolphin Conservation (2025). Climate Giants Programme. Explains how whales contribute to ocean productivity and carbon cycling.
Explore the project →ShareAction (2025). Responsible Investment Campaigns. Resources for employees and investors seeking fossil-free and deforestation-free pensions.
Visit ShareAction →Carbon Tracker Initiative (2025). Energy Transition and Stranded Assets Briefings. Analysis of the financial risks of continued fossil-fuel investment.
View briefings →
I totally agree Daniel. Very enlightening and informative. Thanks Luke!
Thank you for sharing. I might give this a read soon.