In these times, small investors may feel uneasy, not to mention unsure of how to use their investment power conscientiously. This week on Sea Change Radio, we speak to Dr. Raj Thamotheram, an expert in socially responsible investing, about how the field has changed over the years. We discuss billionaire investor Steve Schwarzman‘s recent comments blaming the energy crunch on the popularity of green investing, take a look at the global divestment movement, and talk about which advisors environmentally-conscious small investors should heed.

Narrator  0:02  This is Sea Change Radio covering the shift to sustainability. I'm Alex Wise.

Raj Thamotheram  0:19  You wouldn't leave markets to fight a war. You don't leave markets to deal with public health crisis and you don't need markets to handle what could become very soon an existential crisis for human civilization, it's certainly going to result in much devastation. And we we've only just starting to see the very, very early signs of what's coming down the tunnel.

Narrator  0:45  In these times, small investors may feel uneasy, not to mention unsure of how to use their investment power conscientiously. This week on Sea Change Radio, we speak to Raj Thamotheram , an expert in socially responsible investing about how the field has changed over the years. We discuss billionaire investor Steve Schwarzman his recent comments blaming the energy crunch on the popularity of green investing. Take a look at the global divestment movement and talk about which advisors, environmentally conscious small investors should heed.

Alex Wise  1:41  I'm joined on Sea Change Radio by Raj Thamotheram. He is one of the pioneers of the Responsible Investment field in the UK. He's a board director and senior advisor to several nonprofits in the space. Raj, welcome back to Sea Change Radio.

Raj Thamotheram  1:56  Thank you so much, Alex, I'm very pleased to be back.

Alex Wise  2:01  As I mentioned, you're one of the earliest experts in the responsible investing field, it's changed names many times. Why don't you first summarize the arc? And the evolution of the space briefly if you can?

Raj Thamotheram  2:16  Well, that's a great, great starter question. So in most countries, it started off as ethical or personal values or personal morals based thing. And so for example, in the USA, I think most people first heard about it in relation to apartheid South Africa and not investing in, in that that can also be extended to dealing with tobacco or any other sector or company that individuals don't like. And from there, it morphed a bit as you as you were saying into something which was more institutional or retail as a product and then it became known as socially responsible investing where people start investment professionals start to look for good companies. Best in classes, the technical jargon, companies that are doing better, even if they're in a dirty sector. So for example, without naming names, you can look for fossil fuel companies, which are trying to support the Paris agreement. And invest in those and disinvest or divest from companies who haven't, that's probably the most extreme example of of the challenge in terms of finding best in class. And then most recently, we've had a range of other players come into the sector who are looking for alpha for ou...