A spokesperson for IFM Investors told us that the fund publicly discloses its infrastructure equity assets. They added: \u201cNatural gas is increasingly utilised as a transition fuel for decarbonisation globally \u2026 These assets benefit from investment from long-term, trusted capital partners like pension funds, who can reinvest in them and pave the way for carbon emissions reduction.\u201d<\/p>\n
LNG is often promoted as a cleaner alternative to traditional fossil fuels. However, a peer-reviewed study found it is 33% worse in terms of planet-heating emissions over a 20-year period compared with coal.<\/p>\n
Worcestershire Pension Fund said it invests through structures that mean \u201cexposure to any single asset is indirect, limited, and a very small component of a broader portfolio.\u201d It said the Stonepeak fund in question \u201cpublishes detailed annual reports and complies fully with statutory disclosure requirements\u201d. <\/p>\n
A greener pension<\/p>\n
When it comes to curbing carbon emissions, council pension funds and campaigners have tended to focus on selling their shares in companies like BP and Shell. But a growing portion of pension funds are invested in so-called \u201cprivate markets\u201d. Typically this involves putting money into a number of big funds, which in turn invest in everything from private equity to property to company loans. <\/p>\n
Private markets can offer healthy returns. They\u2019re also something of a black hole for information, which makes following the money much more difficult. And they\u2019re often excluded from the scope of council climate commitments. <\/p>\n
The upshot is that even pension schemes that have promised not to invest in fossil fuels have ploughed money into funds that are paying for major gas projects.<\/p>\n
Take Waltham Forest Pension Fund, which in 2016 became the
\nfirst local authority to make such a commitment. Simon Miller, a former
\ncouncillor who chaired the pension fund committee, said the council
\nalready had a number of green goals to improve the lives of residents.
\n\u201c[But] we had a pension fund that was merrily invested in fossil fuels
\nthat was absolutely out of lockstep with the political direction and
\nphilosophy of the borough.\u201d <\/p>\n
The council\u2019s pension fund proceeded to sell its investments in fossil fuel companies over the following five years. <\/p>\n
According to its latest report, however, Waltham Forest is
\nstill invested in funds managed by Global Infrastructure Partners that
\nhave financed Rio Grande LNG and Allete, which owns an 18,000-acre coal
\nmine in North Dakota. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A spokesperson for IFM Investors told us that the fund publicly discloses its infrastructure equity assets. They added:…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":19226,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[4],"tags":[3545,8803,4664,8804,5,6],"class_list":["post-19225","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-uk","tag-fossil-fuels","tag-greenwashing","tag-local-government","tag-pollution","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@UnitedKingdom\/116446966731422005","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19225","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=19225"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19225\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/19226"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19225"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19225"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19225"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}