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ePetition details

Divest Islington Council Pension Fund from fossil fuels

We the undersigned petition the council to exclude all fossil fuels from its pension fund investments over the next five years. Climate change poses a catastrophic threat to our planet. Scientists agree that global warming is harming our ecosystems, causing extreme weather and causing irreversible damage. We must act now to limit that damage, which means ending investments in dirty fossil fuels.

We welcome Islington Council Pensions Sub-Committee's November 2016 decision to lower the carbon footprint of its equity investments. However, we call upon the council to commit to divest from fossil fuels completely over the next five years. This aim is entirely possible for Islington Council to enact, as explained below:

1. IT IS FINANCIALLY RISKY TO REMAIN INVESTED IN FOSSIL FUELS.
Climate change is recognised as a material risk to financial return on investment by a range of experts and organisations. This is particularly relevant for pension investments which are intended to provide retirement income in the medium to long term. For example Citigroup expects US$100 trillion of value to be ‘stranded’ in fossil fuel assets by 2050 if the investment industry does not move toward a low carbon economy (A).

2. IT IS IN LINE WITH THE COUNCIL'S FIDUCIARY DUTIES TO DIVEST.
Legal advice on local government pension schemes’ fiduciary duties states that they may take environmental considerations into account when making investment decisions (B). Moreover, if those environmental considerations are in danger of negatively impacting investments, they should do so. Where environmental considerations are taken into account and investments altered accordingly, this should not be to the detriment of returns. A number of options exist to provide fossil fuel free investments which enable the Council to meet these duties.

3. PRECEDENT HAS ALREADY BEEN SET.
Waltham Forest has committed to divest from fossil fuels over the next five years, joining other respected British institutions such as the British Medical Association, Guardian Media Group and the Quakers, alongside many international examples including France’s public sector ERAPF fund. (C)

4. IT IS RECOMMENDED BY GOVERNING BODIES.
The London Assembly has advised the London Pensions Fund Authority (LPFA) to divest from coal to protect the city’s economy from climate change, and has stated that governing bodies of pension funds are doing too little to prepare for the threat of climate change. It is reasonable to assume the Assembly would consider it prudent of Islington to remove fossil fuels from its investment strategy. (D)

5. IT IS IN LINE WITH ISLINGTON COUNCIL PENSION FUND'S STATEMENT OF INVESTMENT PRINCIPLES.
Point 25 of which states that “the pensions sub-committee takes the view that well-managed companies that evaluate and assess their social and environmental risks are likely to add shareholder value in the long term more successfully than companies that do not manage these risks”. Investing in fossil fuel companies is plainly at odds with this principle as their entire business model and revenue strategy is predicated on a future scenario which engenders climate change. Furthermore, point 28 of the SIP states the pension sub-committee’s membership of the Institutional Investors Group on Climate Change (IIGCC). Membership of the IIGCC should be seen as more than just a ‘talking shop’ on climate and instead a route to action, as its own stated aim of ‘implementation’ demonstrates.

6. REMAINING INVESTED IN FOSSIL FUELS IS CONTRADICTORY TO THE COUNCIL'S AIR QUALITY AIMS.
Islington Council’s Air Quality Strategy aims to lower air pollution in response to London’s air quality crisis which sees 9,500 people in the city die early each year due to long-term exposure to air pollution. IPPR thinkthank has found 48% of London’s air pollution is caused by road transport, with diesel being a major portion. Funneling money into fossil fuel companies via pension fund investments therefore actively undermines this the Council’s Strategy. (E)

7. THIS PETITION REQUEST IS REALISTIC AND FEASIBLE.
We recognise that immediate withdrawal of funds from fossil fuels is impractical. However, alteration of strategy now to ensure exclusion of all fossil fuels from the investments in five years’ time is wholly feasible, as has been demonstrated by Waltham Forest’s example.

This ePetition ran from 04/02/2017 to 04/08/2017 and has now finished.

19 people signed this ePetition.