to a hedge fund or exchange traded fund i reporter the frankfurt stock exchange chelsea delaney took a look at how easy or hard it is being green. list stretches of cream. the frozen tundra of the art tech. lush south american jungles this is what climate activists want to say from destruction but can fighting against climate change also make you rich. my friend lizzy's started investing last year through a trading app mostly buying popular tech stocks but she also cares about the environment and she wants her investments to reflect that. and it's not just her. millions of people have taken to the streets in recent years to protest climate change and that movement has also found its way into financial markets many no longer just want investments to make money they also want them to make the world

a better place. in the past 3 years investments into sustainable assets have searched by almost 400 percent here in europe. but what does it really mean to enjoy a screen and is this promise that you can make money while also saving the planet too good to be true. to answer that question i'm on my way to see one of germany's green investing heavyweights. called book fitz manages sustainable stock portfolios for the german asset manager of the u.s. he's been very busy lately pinks and large part to my generation. we have the. they are now we present 50 percent of the global workforce and for them sustainability is very important so they will invest their money in a different way through their parents for example there was green investing profitable a couple of years ago it was always like if you want to. invest in

a sustainable manner or green. you might sacrifice performance for that but now it's the never to. it's turning into if you want to make performance you better invest in a sustainable manner or you invest green because especially last year we have seen that most of the sustainability funds passive and active outperformed the broader market so i'm looking here at one of the top european sustainability stock funds it includes about $400.00 different companies that all are labeled as maybe you are the no this acronym stands for and by or mental social in governance of basically these are companies that are committed not just to environmental sustainability but also to taking care of their workers and to being governed in an ethical way. some of these names might surprise you and finance sustainable doesn't just mean for example a wind turbine maker it can also mean a company like nestle which has been increasing its use of renewable energy and

introducing more recyclable packaging like for the smarties can ease. but we total is an oil trailer rio tinto is a metals miner b.p. was behind one of the biggest oil spills in history how can any of these companies possibly be considered sustainable 1st of all i recommend every investor before investing i understand you investment and i ask you it wise and especially about those 2 that you find in those or why is this oil company for example in the fund. but the the space is very diverse and there are many strategies so there is no one solution for all those no shortcuts you have you make up your own mind so how do you decide what is considered green so what we are doing is when we want to evaluate investments we are using to support 3rd party data provider every data provider saying alright this is really a green company then the charge is quite high that is really the truth. here's an

example of how that might work for you companies dependent on coal or other fossil fuels. do your employees work and dangerous conditions. are all of your executives middle aged white men if so you might end up with a failing sustainability grade. the problem though is that these readings aren't always scientific they can be based on a company's pledge to someday become more sustainable it's based on a promise and promises are easily broken. up or as a critic of green investing she says the end history is overrun with green washing or labeling non-green assets as green to make money and my question will be who will define it cannot be that we believe that there is of the greening finance agenda the private finance because it's in the same way to me if you left. i don't know their health agenda to tobacco companies what is dating since it's the same for the private finance company then you said to continue with practices that generate profits and community wise regulatory reach of this thing that's not

to say that there aren't environmentalists sustainable assets out there it's just investors responsibility to find them and luckily it is getting easier. asset managers like paul book and companies are being forced to disclose more data about the climate impacts their businesses and that is a step in the right direction. but it's green investing really powerful enough to turn the tide of climate change. after this i'm skeptical and so is daniella. over the last 5 years what we thought was a lot of good ground that we had again it looks like it's a lot of ground that we are losing but we need to realize beyond thinking that was blind a very joyful financing decisions or with my individual savings decision i would make a difference i don't think that would get as. lizzie is more optimistic she hasn't

given up on green investing but she's going to do a lot of research maybe it's not a silver bullet but as we wait for politicians to get serious about climate change even the smallest and divisional action is better than sitting on the sidelines. watching the devastation of our environment. an important part of sustainability is how we deal with trash since the start of the coronavirus pandemic mosque's it generated a lot of waste and if you did not supply and have a quick turnover last year germany imported $6000000000.00 euros worth of mosques mostly from china and from march to december of last year china exported a whopping $224000000000.00 masks all over the world that's equivalent to $43000000000.00 euros so it's big business but what's the impact on the environment and can mosques really be recycled. the

soco islands at the far southwest of the territory comprising hong kong the waters here have long been polluted but with the pandemic a new form of waste is turned up masks and now we have this to contend with. we have the corona virus and all these masks and now we're fearful. these images make me start to wonder how much of a hazard are these masks for our planet it's an item that many of us now where every day. and why do so many of them end up in the ocean instead of being disposed of through the normal channels and what's the right way to dispose of a mask anyway. it must whether it's the higher grade respirator masks or the more basic surgical ones or rubber gloves that people are also using now they all belong in the trash but if you didn't aren't suitable for

recycling because they're medical waste i believe in you so they need to be incinerated and bought for country. ok but clearly not all masks and up in incinerators as our oceans are littered with them how dangerous is that for marine life and what material on the masks made of to find out i bought an f. and f p 2 respirator mask from a pharmacy. and another one from a supermarket in berlin. i then went online and ordered 2 more mask types. finally i packed up all my purchases and sent them off to a textile laboratory for analysis. they'll be able to tell me what exactly the masts are made of and how hazardous they are for the environment.

2 weeks later i hear back from the lab the good news is wearing a mask isn't harmful for us humans having a mask on for 8 hours a day is fine but for the environment it's a different story. well you can throw a mask away in the countryside somewhere it's not in this really harmful for the environment the disadvantage is that some substances in the masks like polypropylene to go a long time to decompose that's the big downside and the reason why masks should always be disposed of properly. if everyone just throws their mask way in some forest that waste will be around for a long time to come. at some stage you end up with micro plastic that's what makes the masks bad for the environment along the coast of hong kong scientists are finding a growing number of them they estimate that around 1500000000 mass can enter the

sea last year. and we need to reduce the single use number one but then also it comes down to governments and. how they handle their waste management facilities because like half the garbage bins the rubbish bins in the street they have very wide open is all that's all and people just put their mosques in thinking that they're in the right thing and they get blown out rather easily anniston is out there on the street they go down the drains they go down the drains know the drains leads to the ocean so. if it's a joint effort and it's the government level as well as individual. it looks like the masks won't be disappearing from our lines any time soon there are already far too many on the scene but if we all do our part we can at least prevent a further escalation of the problem. exactly sustainable solutions may cost more at 1st but once everyone joins in the price for the stock think about the plan of what

you're creating for generations to come. for joining us.

here. comes godling top. news stations at health clinics. woods has often been in short supply. now it is flying from tulsa across the country. thanks to some of that knowledge time. now for. 30 minutes on d w. where

i come from we had to fight for a free press and was born and raised in a military dictatorship with just one today shadow and a few newspapers with official information as a journalist i have worked off the streets of many cantors and there for all those are almost the same 14 source in equality a lack of the freedom of the press. corruption we can afford to stay silent when it comes to the fans of the human scene or microphones who have decided to put their trust in us. my name is jenny harrison edward a d w. w's

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