Today, on the second anniversary of the UK government joining nearly two hundred nations in signing the Paris Agreement to limit global temperature rise to below 2°C, fifty heads of state, including Prime Minister Theresa May, arrive in Paris for an international summit on climate change and the mobilization of climate finance hosted by President Macron of France.
Despite scientists warning that, to meet this target, fossil fuels must be phased out, Parliament's own Contributory Pension Fund (PCPF) continues to invest millions of pounds of MPs' pensions in fossil fuel companies, including £5.6million in BP and £4.9million in Shell.
Both companies are among the fund's top twenty holdings which were made public for the first time in March 2017, although it still won't divulge its full list of investments.
"With the value of fossil fuel companies' stock based on their entire fossil fuel reserves not just the small percentage that can safely be burned without triggering disastrous levels of global warming these investments are not only environmentally destructive, but represent a significant financial risk" states the campaign, Divest Parliament "Meanwhile, the industry continues to funnel billions every year to find and develop yet more fossil fuel reserves."
Today also marks the milestone of one hundred MPs urging the Parliamentary Pension Fund to divest from oil, coal and gas companies. As well as Salford and Eccles MP Rebecca Long-Bailey, four other Greater Manchester MPs - Ivan Lewis (Bury South), Jeff Smith (Manchester, Withington), Kate Green (Stretford and Urmston) and Lucy Powell (Manchester Central) have put their name to the campaign, together with Jeremy Corbyn, Shadow Chancellor, John McDonnell, and Green Party co-leader Caroline Lucas.
"Fossil fuels helped ignite the first industrial revolution, but we now know that their continued use will threaten our very existence" says Rebecca Long-Bailey "That's why I'm joining 100 other MPs, across parties, to call on our pension fund to remove its investments in fossil fuels. Our words in Paris must be matched by our actions in Parliament our constituents expect nothing less. This starts, but by no means finishes, with where we invest millions of pounds through our pensions."
Jeremy Corbyn adds: "Two years on from the historic Paris Agreement, our country must show leadership in confronting the existential threat posed by climate change. One contribution we can make as MPs is to end the investment from our pension fund in fossil fuel industries, which is why I have signed the pledge. To help protect our planet, we must wean our economy off its fossil fuel dependence and do more to move towards clean and renewable energy."
Caroline Lucas underlines the sentiments... "Preventing catastrophic and irreversible climate change means leaving the vast majority of fossil fuels in the ground" she explains "By divesting our own pension fund from fossil fuels, MPs can come together to demonstrate to the public that we are committed to a just transition towards a low-carbon economy.
"It's utterly unacceptable that the Parliamentary Pension Fund remains so opaque, and that MPs' savings continue to fuel climate chaos" she adds "We need real transparency, and an ethical policy which ensures that our investments do not cause harm for the sake of short term profit."
The national MPs campaign echoes similar calls for the Greater Manchester Pension Fund, which has £1.8billion invested in fossil fuel companies, to divest (see previous Salford Star article click here).
To date, over eight hundred institutions across the globe representing funds worth over $5trillion have made some form of divestment commitment. They include universities, faith and medical institutions, cities such as Seattle, Melbourne and Berlin, the Rockefeller Brothers Fund, heirs to the Rockefeller oil fortune, as well as big financial players such as Norway's sovereign wealth fund.
And over one hundred institutions in the UK have also committed to divest, including a third of all UK Universities, The British Medical Association, The Church of England (partial commitment), The Guardian Media Group and several Local Government Pension Funds, including Waltham Forest and Southwark Council.
.jpg)
(5).JPG)
.jpg)
.jpg)
.jpg)
(3).jpeg)
.png)
(1).JPG)
