ISA investors are set to go green in the new tax year with ethical investment subscription predicted to grow considerably, according to research by The Co-operative.

Currently, sustainable and ethical investments have a one per cent market share but The Co-operative is predicting that this figure will increase to 13 per cent later this year as more investors look to use their increased ISA allowance for greener investments.

Since ISAs were launched in 1999, ethical investments have grown steadily in popularity with investors, increasing their share of the market from £2.8billion to £6.8billion.

In addition, recent IMA statistics has revealed that sales of ethical funds for the final quarter of 2009 increased to their highest level last seen in final quarter of 2007 before the recession began. 

Encouragingly, interest in ethical products is not limited to investments as many consumers have also made an attempt to bank ethically. According to the research, as a sector it has almost tripled in the past 11 years from £5.1billion to £14.4billion.

Welcoming the findings, Rod Bulmer, managing director at The Co-operative Financial Services, believes these findings confirm that sustainable investment is an “attractive place to invest” for a broad number of people.
 
“Sustainable investment is not a niche for ethically-minded consumers. It offers a fantastic chance to grow investors’ money over the long-term by exploiting the exciting investment opportunities from major changes occurring throughout the world.

“The need to tackle issues such as ageing populations, climate change and global power shortage are fundamental in global society, and will create investment opportunities for some time to come,” he said.

© Fair Investment Company Ltd