Geopolitical issues have been at the forefront of headlines over the last year. The conflict in Israel and Gaza, stagnation between Russia and Ukraine as well as tensions with China have continued to be a backdrop to investment considerations. The easing of US and China relations later in the year was welcome. However, some breakthroughs in other areas would also help. 

The cost of living crisis was still a top story in 2023. Even though energy prices have reduced as oil and gas prices have eased, inflation has taken hold making life difficult. Data from the UK government shows inflation sitting at 4.6% in October which was down from 6.7% in September. A high level of inflation affects the affordability of goods and services and can make budgeting tricky. Interest rates have risen to combat inflation. This has provided a silver lining for savers, although the full impact on mortgage borrowers has still to be experienced. Also, investment markets have stabilised in comparison to 2022 but we have found that they continue to be volatile. 

Another record year of floods and heatwaves have proven that climate change remains an ever-present danger, hastening the need for more sustainable investment. In August, a series of wildfires broke out on the island of Maui in Hawaii. The fires proved to be catastrophic and led to evacuations, widespread damage, the deaths of at least 100 people and 4 missing people. The devastating effects of the fires were attributed to dry, gusty conditions created by high pressure from Hurricane Dora. Closer to home, we felt the effects of Storm Babet. We saw exceptional rainfall with an estimated 150 to 200 mm of rain falling between the 18th and 21st of October. This led to widespread flooding particularly in Angus. The village of Brechin found itself under water as the flood defences on the River Esk were breached. Scottish farmers lost crops and livestock and around 30,000 homes in the north of Scotland lost power. October also saw records broken in Spain as the mercury rose to around 29 to 35 degrees Celsius which is 5 degrees hotter than the expected monthly average. These unseasonable and extreme weather events further the need for sustainable investment to help us reach our environmental goals. 

On the theme of the environment, COP 28 was recently held in Dubai. There has been a mixed reception but there has at least been a signal to transition away from fossil fuels and to fund reparations. Almost 200 countries have agreed to transition away from fossil fuels which is the first time such an agreement has been made in 28 years of negotiations. The transition will involve the reduction of our reliance on fossil fuels and an increase in our use of renewable energy. It has been argued that many countries have been doing this for years and the COP 28 agreement is simply legal terminology. There have been similar agreements (such as at COP 26 in Glasgow) that haven’t been acted upon. It is up to individual countries and governments to commit to the agreement and make sure work moves forward, not backwards.  

Moving closer to home, it has been a year of mixed fortunes for us here at Ethical Futures. We continued the expansion of our team when Alan joined us as an administrator at the end of March. He has been a great addition to the team and has settled in very well. Unfortunately, we feel we’ve taken one step forward and then another straight back again as we sadly said goodbye to Aimee in April as she chose to move on to pastures new. We have found that it is currently a difficult recruitment environment which means that we have haven’t made as much progress as we had hoped in building our team. However, we look forward to continuing our search in the new year. 

Despite our struggles to expand our team, we want to applaud the active participation from everyone regarding our ongoing development, the qualifications that have been gained and the new skills that have been learned in the last year. We’ve continued our monthly team meetings where we keep up to date with our regulatory training. Our most recent meeting saw us brushing up on how to identify and support vulnerable clients and how to navigate complaints. We were very proud to announce that Ellie, our paraplanner, completed her Diploma in Regulated Financial Planning with the Personal Finance Society in September. We are always keen to support our team to further their professional development and to help them achieve their career goals. 

In May we took our first tentative steps into activism with Share Action. Julian and Marian attended Lloyd’s AGM at Glasgow’s SEC to ask a question relating to their attitude towards the ethnicity pay gap. To read more about how they got on, your can read Marian’s account of the day here. We hope to get more opportunities in the future to continue working with Share Action. To learn more about their important work click here. 

And that just about sums up the year. We hope that you have had a good year and the whole team at Ethical Futures would like to wish you a happy festive season. We look forward to continuing to make your money change your world in the New Year.