Council workers' pensions fuelling climate emergency, claims Friends of the Earth Scotland

A NEW report by environmental campaigners has revealed that a north-east pension fund for council employees, including Moray Council workers, has £124 million invested in fossil fuel companies.

The North East Scotland Pension Fund (NESPF) administers the pensions of 71,000 members, including for employees of Moray, Aberdeenshire and Aberdeen City councils.

Friends of the Earth Scotland has criticised 20 Scottish councils who have declared a climate emergency yet, it says, have taken no action to end their investments in coal, oil and gas firms.

Moray Council declared a climate and ecological emergency in June 2019 and plans to reach net zero carbon emissions by 2030.

Meanwhile Aberdeen City Council has pledged to be an "exemplar for net zero and climate resilience" and agreed a plan in May last year to position Aberdeen as a "climate positive city".

The report by Friends of the Earth Scotland claims that in Scotland, £1.2 billion of council pension funds was invested in fossil fuel companies.

Rachel Winter, from Extinction Rebellion Forres, said: "I am horrified that the pensions of local authority workers are still being invested in the fossil fuel industry, which poses a direct threat to their future wellbeing and that of their children.

"Like Aberdeen City Council, the Moray Council has recognised the severe consequences that global heating of above 1.5°C will have on our local area, such as coastal flooding, extreme weather events, wildfires, disruption to our food supplies and greater risk of future pandemics.

"Yet they are still investing the pensions of council workers in fossil fuel companies, key drivers of the climate crisis.

"With COP26 coming to Scotland, the North East Scotland Pension Fund has a vital opportunity to divest from fossil fuels and reinvest in a Just Transition to renewable energy which can help avoid the worst effects of the climate crisis and provide secure and innovative jobs for those currently working in North Sea oil.

"United Nations scientists say we must reduce our total emissions by seven per cent every year until 2030 in order to cut our emissions in half. If we are to achieve this, investing in further oil field exploration and extraction needs to stop immediately."

She added: "Investing in fossil fuels isn’t just bad for the planet, it is also a terrible investment, as this report highlights. Since 2017, billions have been knocked off the value of local authority pension fund investments in the fossil fuel industry. Are council workers aware of this?

"I sincerely urge the Moray Council to insist that its pension fund managers immediately divest from this polluting industry and instead channel the local wealth held in its workers’ pensions into investment opportunities that can bring a healthy return and support Moray to build back better from the current pandemic, rather than endangering our future wellbeing."

A spokesperson for Moray Council said: "The council has committed to an aspirational climate change strategy with the aim of becoming carbon neutral by 2030.

"We have reassurance that the pension fund is working constantly to assess ways of becoming more carbon neutral, notwithstanding its commitment to investors to deliver the best return."

Friends of the Earth Scotland is urging local councillors to tell their fund managers to divest from fossil fuels.

The Scottish Greens' lead candidate for Highlands & Islands region, Ariane Burgess, urged the North East Scotland Pension Fund to end fossil fuel investments.

She said: "This year the world will come to Scotland when Glasgow hosts the UN climate change summit. It’s time for Scotland to take a lead in tackling the climate crisis, and one of the most straightforward ways we can begin to do that is by ending these public investments in big oil and gas.

"Moray Council must show that it is serious about tackling the climate emergency by bringing its influence to bear and ending these obscene oil and gas investments."