Climate campaigners raise heat over pension fund's fossil fuel investment
Campaigners are piling pressure on to stop a £2 billion county pension fund from investing in fossil fuels.
Fossil Free Shropshire claims we are in Code Red for humanity and that, by investing, the Shropshire County Pension Fund is contributing to "catastrophic" global warming.
It comes ahead of the COP26 climate conference in Glasgow, which starts on Sunday.
A new report from Friends of the Earth says that UK pension funds have an estimated £128 billion invested in fossil fuels, equivalent to nearly £2,000 for every person in the UK.
The findings put additional pressure on Shropshire’s flagship pension fund before a crucial vote on divestment in November.
The report, “Polluted Pensions? Clearing the air around UK pensions and fossil fuels”, investigated the investments of six of the UK’s largest pension funds and found a typical investment in fossil fuels to be 4.3 per cent – when applied to the whole pension sector this amounts to £128 billion, £1,916 per UK citizen.
Kris Welch, a spokesperson for Fossil Free Shropshire, said: “We’re really pleased to see this new report and it confirms what we’ve been saying here in Shropshire.
"At present the £2 billion Shropshire County Pension Fund is investing in climate-wrecking fossil fuel companies like BP and Shell.
"The fund claims that they are ‘engaging’ with these companies in order to get them to change their ways, but all the evidence is that fossil fuel production is rising across the globe at an alarming rate.
"At present the world is committed to extracting 110 per cent more fossil fuels than we can afford to burn if the planet is to stay below 1.5C and avoid catastrophic warming.”
In July 2020, Shropshire Council voted to call on the pension fund to divest from fossil fuels and sell its holdings in companies like BP and Shell after a successful motion brought by Green Party councillor Julian Dean.
Other councils who pay into the pot – including Telford & Wrekin, Shrewsbury and Oswestry – have also put their weight behind the call for the fund to divest. These represent the bulk of the fund’s employers.
However, the Pension Fund Committee which oversees the fund’s investments has consistently rejected the argument for divestment in response to public questions from campaigners.
A key vote on divestment will be held on 26 November.
Fossil Free Shropshire is running a petition ahead of the November divestment vote.
To view and sign it, visit fossilfreeshropshire.com
