Press release Archives

COP: Councils urged to ditch climate-wrecking pension investments

#StopFundingFossilFuels Day of Action Protests take place across the UK over council investments in fossil fuels during COP26 – including Glasgow over Strathclyde Pension Fund Local authorities must do far more to champion the fight against climate change by divesting from fossil fuels, say Friends of the Earth and campaign group Platform today (Wednesday 3 …

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Pension funds invest £2,000 in fossil fuels for every person in the UK – new study

UK pension funds have an estimated £128 billion invested in fossil fuels, equivalent to nearly £2,000 for every person in the UK, according to new research by Friends of the Earth released today. This is the key finding from “Polluted Pensions? Clearing the air around UK pensions and fossil fuels”, a new report[1] by Friends …

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Oxfordshire Pension Fund begins fossil fuel divestment

A year after Oxford University decided to divest from fossil fuels, the Oxfordshire local government pension fund has begun excluding fossil fuel investments from their own fund. On 10th September, the administering committee for the scheme, worth approximately £3 billion and with around 65,000 members, voted to move the full value of the Fund’s passive …

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Despite local councils investing £10 billion into fossil fuels, new polling finds just 12% of British adults support this policy

YouGov research has found that when asked ‘to what extent do you support or oppose the investment of local government pension funds in fossil fuel companies’, just 12% said they support. 41% oppose, with the rest indifferent. 95% of councils have yet to divest their pension funds from fossil fuels.[1] Collectively they still have almost …

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Dirty pensions: £10 billion still invested in fossil fuels by local government pension funds

Financial figures in this press release have been updated to reflect further information received from West Midlands Pension Fund, after the report had been written. Despite over 75% of local councils declaring a climate emergency, billions of pounds are still invested in planet-wrecking fossil fuels through local government pension funds. Freedom of information requests by environmental campaigners found that, despite decreases in recent …

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