Climate campaigners are challenging one of the biggest local council ‘pension pools’ to stop backing fossil fuel companies, which they say are harming the futures of 1,300,000 pension fund members who they are supposed to protect.
Time to invest pensions ethically
Border to Coast Pensions Partnership, based in Leeds, has assets of £65bn, which it invests on behalf of 11 local authority pension funds, including those for North Yorkshire Pension Fund.
The BCPP Fossil Free campaign plans to lobby BCPP’s Annual Conference at the Hilton Leeds City on 25 September. Campaign representative Howard Green said:
“We applaud BCPP’s leadership in this year’s BP AGM rebellion – but now they must take the logical next step, and pull out of oil and gas companies that wilfully ignore their promises to reduce emissions.
“The world is running out of time; if BCPP keeps on backing the backsliders, younger pension fund members face a legacy of economic and environmental collapse, based on UN current projections and analysis by pension fund experts. We only have to look at this summer’s weather and the fires on the North Yorkshire moors as evidence of climate break down”
The Institute and Faculty of Actuaries warned earlier this year that, unless decision-makers adopt more realistic assessment of climate risks, “mass mortality, mass displacement, severe economic contraction and conflict become more likely”.
Protest at Leeds Hilton on 25 September
The protest will be held as the government’s new pensions bill is creating a more powerful role for pension pools, as new megafunds. Seven more pension funds have expressed interest in joining BCPP, which could increase its assets to £110bn. Local climate campaigners have welcomed the bill, which could open the way to switch £16bn invested in fossil fuels by UK council pension funds into clean green energy and sustainable jobs for local communities.
Howard Green added: “Surveys show 80% of people want stronger action now to tackle climate breakdown and protect their futures. Our council tax ending up in overseas investment in oil and gas, including controversial extraction expansion, does the opposite – it harms the futures of all of us, especially members of pension funds.”
Campaign for greener pensions
A national campaign and petition for greener pensions is supported by White Lotus actor Jason Isaacs, Stephen Fry and Richard Curtis, Love Actually director and founder of Comic Relief. He said: “Greener, fairer pensions are our superpower to protect the future for all generations. We need our leaders to put British savers and climate safety at the heart of the pension reforms. There’s no point inheriting a pension in a world on fire.”
Eleven local pension funds – Bedfordshire, Cumbria, Durham, East Riding, Lincolnshire, North Yorkshire, South Yorkshire, Surrey, Teesside, Tyne and Wear, Warwickshire – draw on council contributions funded by council taxpayers. The Local Government Pension Scheme, the fifth largest public pension scheme in the world, invests £16bn a year in fossil fuels.