BACKGROUND INFORMATION:
Our local authority has a responsibility not to invest local
people's funds in outdated, polluting industries, such as fossil
fuels (oil, coal and gas), that are damaging the balance of our
climate and threatening our way of life.
Already, we are seeing a greater frequency of extreme weather
events, such as the floods of 2013/14 – the wettest winter in
England and Wales since 1776 - which caused severe flooding in East
Sussex and exposed our coast to very high storm surges from the
sea.
Investments in fossil fuels are also financially risky.
Global temperature targets agreed by world leaders can only be met
if most of the existing fossil fuel reserves remain unburned and we
quickly move to cleaner technology. This means that investments in
fossil fuel companies could soon become ‘stranded
assets’.
Indeed, the Governor of the Bank of England, Mark Carney, has
warned that investors face 'potentially huge' losses from climate
change action that could make vast reserves of oil, coal and gas
'literally unburnable'
For reasons of both public responsibility and financial prudence, a
growing number of major institutions across the world - including
the cities of Oslo, Seattle, and Oxford, Glasgow University, and
the World Council of Churches - have already decided to move their
funds out of fossil fuels. Several UK local authorities, including
Haringey Council and the South Yorkshire Pension Fund, are now
taking similar steps.
The East Sussex Pension Fund has an estimated £172 million of local people's pensions invested in fossil fuels. The Fund is administered by East Sussex County Council.
On 13 April 2016, Labour and Conservative Councillors on Hastings Borough Council – a member of the Pension Fund - joined forces to pass a unanimous motion calling on East Sussex County Council to divest the Fund from fossil fuels.
It's time for East Sussex County Council to divest local people's pensions from these dirty, damaging and financially risky industries.
LINKS
'What is fossil fuel divestment and why does it matter?'
(film)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D_xqn-FyN_k
'Mark Carney warns investors face ‘huge’ climate
change losses'
https://next.ft.com/content/622de3da-66e6-11e5-97d0-1456a776a4f5
'Extreme weather already on increase due to climate change,
study finds'
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2015/apr/27/extreme-weather-already-on-increase-due-to-climate-change-study-finds
Divestment commitments
http://gofossilfree.org/commitments/
UK Councils have £14 billion invested in fossil
fuels
http://gofossilfree.org/uk/revealed-uk-councils-have-14-billion-invested-in-fossil-fuels/
East Sussex Pension Fund investments in fossil fuels
https://fossilfreehastingsblog.files.wordpress.com/2015/10/escc-fossil-fuel-investments.jpg
'Haringey Council divests from coal and moves £200 million
into low carbon fund'
http://www.pensionsage.com/pa/south-yorkshire-pension-fund-divests-from-pure-coal.php
'South Yorkshire Pension Fund to divest from 'pure' coal
companies'
http://www.pensionsage.com/pa/south-yorkshire-pension-fund-divests-from-pure-coal.php
Fossil Free Hastings
https://fossilfreehastings.wordpress.com
Eastbourne & District Friends of the Earth
https://www.foe.co.uk/groups/eastbourne
This ePetition ran from 21/03/2017 to 10/07/2020 and has now finished.
195 people signed this ePetition.
