Make an investment for the next generation
Saving money for the future is one of the best gifts you can give to a child, often helping towards major life goals such as putting down a deposit for a house. If you invest a small amount of money now, over a number of years that could become a substantial pot of money. For instance, if you invested £1,000 when a child was born, with an annual interest rate of 5% that would become just over £2,400 by their 18th birthday.
When it comes to investing as a climate action, investing in a child’s future becomes two-fold. On the surface, it’s a direct monetary investment – which also has the added benefit of introducing children to investing, and specifically to ethical investing, at an early age. On top of that, you’re also putting your money to work tackling climate change – which the next generation will see the impacts of in a much more visceral way.
Children are crucial to the climate crisis. We’re already seeing teenagers lead the way with climate action, through actions such as the weekly school strikes for climate across the globe. They’re passionate, and they’re angry that we’ve failed to prevent emissions climbing up so far. By making an investment to tackle climate change, on behalf of a child, you’re showing that you care and that you are taking action.
The Low Carbon Hub’s Community Energy Fund: investing on behalf of children
Our Community Energy Fund is currently open to new investors. Investors must be over the age of 16 years in order to hold shares of their own. However, an investor can choose to hold shares on behalf of someone who is under 16. Once that person turns 16, they can then become an Investor Member themselves, with the shares transferred into their own name.
We are intending to change this process in future to allow children to become investor members in their own right, but currently, we are only able to offer shares on behalf of children.
The minimum investment in our Community Energy Fund is just £250 (up to a maximum of £100,000), so it makes a perfect gift for a child – especially with the growth of gifts of ‘experience’ rather than material gifts.
To invest on behalf of a child, you simply need to fill out an additional form when you make your investment, which confirms that you will be holding shares on behalf of a child. At the age of 16, you’ll then need to contact us, and we’ll send a stock transfer form to you to complete and return, along with your original share certificate. Once we receive this, we’ll transfer the shares into the child’s name and issue a new share certificate to them, as well as contacting them to confirm their bank details for interest payment.
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