Red Rebels march through Dorchester calling for green pension funds
Dorset Action on Pensions want Dorset Council to stop investing in fossil fuels
Last updated 16th Jun 2021
'Stop investing our pensions in fossil fuels' - that's the message to Dorset Council from eco-campaigners.
Dorset Action on Pensions lobbied outside South Walks House yesterday as the pension fund committee met.
Several letters have been sent from fund members and campaigners asking the council to change its investments.
They say fund managers need to go further than decisions to reduce investments in high carbon consuming companies made in September 2020. They want them to cut out fossil fuel investments altogether.
Caz Dennett from Dorset Action on Pensions told Greatest Hits Radio Dorset:
"We're not financial experts and we don't claim to be, but a lot of the financial experts are now saying 'maybe it actually is time that people take money out of fossil fuels because they're going to become stranded assets, they're going to be devalued.
"So both from a financial point of view and from a moral point of view we do think it's time that Dorset Council and the Dorset Council pension fund took their money out of fossil fuels."
Campaigners marched through the streets of Dorchester to raise awareness, joined by the Red Rebels.
But Dorset Council says it's plan is to discourage the consumption of fossil fuels, based on advice given by investment consultants.
They say the decision was based upon evidence presented to the committee by an independent investment consultancy. It said a strategy of de-carbonising can deliver significantly greater reductions in carbon footprint of investments than can be achieved by divestment.
Cllr Andy Canning, chairman of the Pension Fund Committee said:
"Dorset Council is the administering authority for the Local Government Pension Scheme in Dorset which provides pensions and other benefits for employees of the Council, other councils and a range of other organisations within the county.
"Dorset Council has delegated its responsibilities as an administering authority to the Pension Fund Committee which has a duty to scheme members and their employers to ensure that their contributions to the pension fund are invested appropriately to make returns sufficient to pay benefits to scheme members when they fall due. This duty overrides any other considerations.
"In addition to this event we have received a large number of questions from members of the public regarding the pension fund's approach to investments in fossil fuels and we welcome the interest in this very important topic which was discussed at length at the meeting of the Committee in September 2020. The reports, minutes and a recording of those discussions are all available on the Council's website.
"Divestment is effectively a transfer of ownership that does not directly lead to a reduction in either the supply or demand for fossil fuels but it does remove the opportunity to influence companies by working with them to transition to a lower carbon future. I would like to add, however, that targeted divestment remains an option from individual companies who will not positively engage."