Star date: 8th December 2020

PENSION FUND THAT WOULDN'T LISTEN TO CLIMATE ACTIVISTS LOSES OVER £1,000 PER PENSION MEMBER

For years, climate activists have tried to get the Greater Manchester Pension Fund to divest from carbon energy companies, and now the Fund - which provides pensions for public sector employees and more - has paid the price for not listening.

New analysis from Transition Economics reveals that £375million has been wiped off the value of the Fund due to its oil and gas investments losing value over the past three years.

Full details here...

Over recent years, the Salford Star has covered many a protest by climate activists, campaigning to get the Greater Manchester Pension Fund to divest from carbon producing companies.

At the last such event in July 2019, activists from Extinction Rebellion glued themselves to entrance of the Fund's offices, as member Neil Hancox said "It's now time for GMPF to step up, join the growing divestment movement and act - in the interest of future generations, as well as their investors..."

Today, Platform London, which commissioned Transition Economics to analyse what has been happening to the Fund, reveals that £375million has been wiped off its value over the last three years due to its oil and gas investments.

The Greater Manchester Pension Fund was the hardest hit pension fund in the country, and also suffered the largest percentage fall. The decline in value of its oil and gas holdings wiped out 2.2% of the total fund value, equivalent to over £1,000 per pension member.

Meanwhile, Fossil Free Greater Manchester estimates that, if the Fund had sold its oil and gas holdings in 2017 and reinvested the money in a FTSE 100 tracker fund, it would have lost just £99million in value over the same period. And if the Fund had invested in a low carbon fund which avoids oil and gas shares, "it would almost certainly have lost less..."

Public sector, and many other sector employees, in Salford and the rest of the region pay into the Greater Manchester Pension Fund for security in their retirement...

"We have been saying for five years that the Fund's investments in fossil fuels are not just highly risky for our shared climate, but increasingly so in financial terms" says Mark Burton, of Fossil Free Greater Manchester "It gives us no great pleasure to see that we have been right, despite unverified claims by the Fund that these investments are good earners."

Robert Noyes, a campaigner at Platform, adds: "It is well past time for pension funds to drop oil and gas stocks, both for the climate and their future valuation. Funds like Greater Manchester, West Yorkshire and Nottinghamshire lost billions by sticking with BP and Shell. They should have listened to divest campaigners. Instead, the burden is being dumped on the public, pensioners and the Global South."