After the Labour run Oldham Council removed any mention of divestment from a motion calling for the Greater Manchester Pension Fund (GMPF) to stop investing in fossil fuel companies, the managers of the fund have refused to come and meet with councillors to explain why they are against the change.
Liberal Democrat Councillor Sam Al-Hamdani proposed the motion, and following the amendments to it, accepted an offer from cabinet member Abdul Jabbar to have the GMPF explain their reasoning. However, GMPF then responded to say that they “have decided not accept such invitations for now.”
Councillor Al-Hamdani said: “This is not acceptable. Oldham Council is among many public bodies which has accepted that we are facing a climate crisis. Yet our money is going into the largest pension fund of its kind in the UK, which is continuing to invest in fossil fuel companies.
“GMPF claims that this is because it ‘aims to be an active voice in the calls for companies to lower their carbon emissions’.
“‘Aims’ is not good enough. We should be forcing companies to stop investing in fossil fuels, and if GMPF don’t agree, then they should be prepared to talk to the Councils who are part of their fund to defend that decision.”
Oldham Council is aiming for carbon neutrality by 2025, yet GMPF is only aiming for that by 2050. And GMPF’s investment in fossil fuel companies has actually been increasing – Fossil Free Greater Manchester (FFGM) analysed GMPF’s holdings at 31 March, 2020 versus 31 March 2019 and concluded that holdings in the oil and gas giants Shell and BP went up by 27.3% and 18.6% respectively and Glencore, a commodity trading and mining company whose operations include coal, increased by 42.3%.
Councillor Al-Hamdani continued: “There are extremely sound financial arguments for investing pension funds in sustainable investments. And there are extremely strong ethical ones for stopping investing in fossil fuels. At the very least, the people who are investing this money should be prepared to come and explain why they are refusing to do that.”
Hi Howard, I am the sole LD on my pensions committee. Here in Wiltshire approximately 3% of the pension fund is currently invested in places I would not recommend. Seeking to preserve the value of the fund and deliver the fiduciary duty whilst tackling that 3%, I managed to convince a climate sceptical Tory administration into accepting change by gaining agreement for the commissioning a “fund performance modelling (from our consultants) report that tested performance against various climate change scenario’s. That modelling showed that fund performance consistently declined as the climate warmed (because we would be constantly firefighting the consequences) above 1.5 degrees. That report got them to change the Investment strategy, adopt strict ESG standards and work at switching investment without ever using the word disinvestment.
Excellent work and well done you!