Tag: Divest Lothian

Anger as Lothian Pension Fund increases fossil fuel investments

Climate justice campaigners have condemned the Lothian Pension Fund for increasing its investments in fossil fuels despite the worsening climate emergency. 

The latest investment holdings list from the Lothian Pension Fund reveals that the fund’s investments in oil and gas companies have risen in value to £208m in 2024 from £166m in 2022. This increase is driven by the purchase of additional shares rather than changes in the market value of existing holdings and has arisen despite Edinburgh and East Lothian councils passing motions in 2022 calling on the fund to divest from fossil fuels in order to tackle the climate crisis.

The Lothian Pension Fund is the second biggest fossil fuel investor of all the council pension funds in Scotland. It invests in some of the world’s biggest climate polluters, including TotalEnergies, Exxon Mobil, Eni, Equinor, Shell and BP.

TotalEnergies, now Lothian Pension Fund’s largest fossil fuel investment following a recent significant purchase of additional shares, is currently developing the East African Crude Oil Pipeline. If completed, the pipeline will stretch 1,444km across Uganda and Tanzania, to pump oil out of new oil fields in Uganda to be exported on the international market. It would produce 379m tonnes of carbon emissions if it goes ahead.

Joan Forehand from campaign group Divest Lothian said: “It is appalling that the Lothian Pension Fund is choosing to invest even more of its members’ pensions in companies that, despite responsible investors’ efforts over many years to get them to change course, are doubling down on oil and gas expansion plans. 

“The science is clear: we need to rapidly transition away from fossil fuels to avoid catastrophic climate breakdown, and the economic collapse that would bring. Increasing investment in the fossil fuel industry highlights the failure of the Lothian Pension Fund to adequately assess climate change risk in its financial modelling.”

Sally Clark, divestment campaigner at Friends of the Earth Scotland, said: “It’s unbelievable that despite the worsening climate crisis and clear support for ending fossil fuel investments from councillors in Edinburgh and East Lothian, Lothian Pension Fund has actually increased investments in fossil fuels. 

“These fossil fuel companies are driving climate breakdown and the pension fund’s managers have a responsibility to act in the best interests of their members and future generations. 

“The money moved away from fossil fuels could instead be invested in ways that support local communities and protect the planet for everyone, like renewable energy. As skyrocketing energy bills are plunging millions of people into fuel poverty across the UK, this transition is more important than ever.” 

Jane Herbstritt, climate campaigner at Global Justice Now added: “Despite the certainty of the climate emergency, TotalEnergies is pressing ahead with its climate-wrecking development of the East African Crude Oil Pipeline – displacing local communities and destroying the environment in order to profit from pumping out more new oil than can be safely burned.

“It is wholly irresponsible for the Lothian Pension Fund to give its backing to this by increasing its investment in TotalEnergies, particularly when councillors in Edinburgh and East Lothian have voted for the pension fund to divest from oil and gas.”

Divest Lothian is calling on the pension fund’s managers to stop investing in fossil fuels and to instead invest in renewable energy and social housing in order to prioritise the long-term health and well-being of its members and of communities around the world. 

Protesters call for action on one year anniversary of Edinburgh councillors voting for divestment

Campaigners staged a protest outside Edinburgh City Chambers on Friday (24 November) to call on the Lothian Pension Fund to divest from fossil fuels. The protest marked one year since Edinburgh City Council voted in favour of divestment, but the fund has still not enacted the request.

Lothian Pension Fund has at least £350 million invested in the fossil fuel industry, according to new analysis by Platform and Friends of the Earth Scotland. This is a significant increase from the £229 million investment it held when the research was last conducted in October 2021.

Lothian Pension Fund is the second biggest fossil fuel investor of all the council pension funds in Scotland. It invests in some of the world’s biggest climate polluters, including Exxon Mobil, Shell, Equinor, TotalEnergies and BP.

With virtually all oil and gas companies set to expand their operations, campaigners are calling on the Lothian Pension Fund to listen to councillors and stop funding fossil fuels.

The protest highlighted the role French oil giant TotalEnergies – that Lothian Pensions have investments worth £19 million in – is playing in worsening the climate crisis and threatening human rights.

TotalEnergies is currently developing the East African Crude Oil Pipeline, stretching 1444 km across Uganda and Tanzania. Building this pipeline is displacing communities and destroying livelihoods in Africa in order to pump oil out of the continent to be consumed by people living in the global north.

John Hardy from Divest Lothian said: “It’s extremely disappointing that as the climate crisis worsens, the Lothian Pension Fund has failed to follow the democratic will of the council to divest from the fossil fuel companies that are driving climate breakdown.

“In particular, their investments in TotalEnergies and the East African Crude Oil Pipeline harms our climate and puts local communities and important ecosystems at risk.

“The Lothian Pension Fund needs to listen to the people of Edinburgh and the Lothians and divest from all fossil fuel companies immediately. Our future is at stake, and we cannot afford to wait any longer.”

Sophie Burgess from Global Justice Edinburgh Youth Collective said: “We need to Stop EACOP for my future, the future of people in Uganda and Tanzania and the future of people globally.

“We cannot allow pensions to continue to fund fossil fuel giants like TotalEnergy, who are continuing to threaten all our futures with devastating projects like the East African Crude Oil Pipeline.”

The Lothian Pension Fund administers the pension funds of almost 90,000 members from the four councils in the Lothians and 59 other employers, including Scottish Water, Edinburgh Napier University, VisitScotland and Heriot-Watt University.

Lothian Pension Fund investing at least £350 MILLION in fossil fuel companies

Lothian Pension Fund has at least £350 million invested in the fossil fuel industry, according to new analysis by Platform and Friends of the Earth Scotland.

The Lothian Pension Fund, administered by Edinburgh City Council, is the second biggest fossil fuel investor of all the council pension funds in Scotland.

The City of Edinburgh Council voted to divest the fund from fossil fuels in November 2022, yet the fund managers have not enacted this request. It invests in some of the world’s biggest climate polluters, including Exxon Mobil, Shell, Equinor, TotalEnergies and BP.

With virtually all oil and gas companies set to expand their operations, campaigners are calling on the Lothian Pension Fund to listen to councillors and stop funding fossil fuels.

Lothian Pension Fund administers the pension funds of almost 90,000 members from the four councils in the Lothians and 59 other employers, including Scottish Water, Edinburgh Napier University, VisitScotland and Heriot-Watt University.

Sally Clark, divestment campaigner at Friends of the Earth Scotland, said: “It’s unbelievable that despite clear direction from councillors, the Lothian Pension Fund is still investing this obscene amount of money in fossil fuel companies that are driving climate breakdown.

“Councils must play their part in protecting the long-term future of their employees by ending their support for oil and gas expansion and investing in building a cleaner, safer future for us all – but their attempts to do this are being blocked.

“The money moved away from fossil fuels could instead be invested in ways that support local communities and protect the planet for everyone, like renewable energy. As skyrocketing energy bills are plunging millions of people into fuel poverty across the UK, this transition is more important than ever.”

Joan Forehand, campaigner with Divest Lothian, said: “The economic and moral arguments against continuing investment in fossil fuel companies by the Lothian Pension Fund are overwhelming.

“In 2023 oil and gas companies doubled down on investing in the development of new fossil fuel projects, despite the stark warnings from climate scientists and the UN that this paves the way to catastrophic climate destabilisation and the resulting collapse of the economic systems on which future pensions depend.

“To protect the pensions of its members, the Lothian Pension Fund must join the growing number of pension funds divesting from these companies.”

Stephen Smellie, depute convenor at Unison Scotland, said: “Fossil fuels are bad for the environment and our retirement.

“These dirty deals threaten the future of our environment, and needlessly risk the retirements of the hundreds of thousands of Unison members that pay into local government pension schemes. To secure a future worth retiring into, schemes should respond to members’ calls to action and dump these dated fossil fuel assets.”

Across the UK, £16 billion of council pension funds is invested in the fossil fuel industry. Over 20% of UK councils now invest less than 1% of their fund into fossil fuels – a 10 fold increase since 2020, the last time analysis was conducted. Lothian Pension Fund was found to invest over 4% of its fund into fossil fuels.

City council votes to end Lothian Pension Fund fossil fuel investment

Climate campaigners have welcomed yesterday’s council decision to pass a motion calling on the £8 billion Lothian Pension Fund to end its investments in fossil fuel companies that are driving the climate crisis.

The motion, tabled by SNP councillors Vicky Nicolson and Marco Biagi, and seconded by Adam McVey (SNP), calls on the Lothian Pension Fund to protect the long-term interests of its members by removing its investments from fossil fuel companies that are not shifting their business toward renewable energy.

Last month, East Lothian councillors voted unanimously in favour of ending the Lothian Pension Fund’s fossil fuel investments.

The Lothian Pension Fund, administered by The City of Edinburgh Council, invests an estimated £229 million in fossil fuel companies which are driving climate breakdown, including BP, Shell, ExxonMobil and Equinor.

Oil giant Equinor is currently planning to develop the Rosebank oilfield to the west of Shetland – the largest undeveloped oil and gas field in the UK which contains over 500 million barrels of oil.

Eva Gallova, Divest Lothian campaigner from Edinburgh, said: “Edinburgh councillors, having rightly declared a climate emergency in 2019 and committed to becoming a net zero city by 2030, today acted on these promises and showed their constituents that these were not just empty words.

“Divesting the Lothian Pension Fund from fossil fuels would cut the Council’s ties with an industry hell-bent on stymying climate action and taking us on a path which can only lead to more death & destruction.

“The members of the Lothian Pension Fund, especially the younger members, should have prospects for a future worth retiring into and this will not be possible if our councils continue investing in companies like BP, Shell and Equinor that are planning massive expansions in their climate-wrecking oil and gas production. It’s time for the Lothian Pension Fund to protect pensions and the planet by ending its investments in fossil fuels.”

Sally Clark, divestment campaigner at Friends of the Earth Scotland, said: “It is very encouraging that City of Edinburgh councillors have voted to support ending the Lothian Pension Fund’s investments in planet-wrecking fossil fuels.

“With the UN Secretary General warning last week at COP27 that we need to massively invest in renewables and end our addiction to fossil fuels in order to keep global temperature rises below 1.5 degrees, it has never been more urgent for councils to break their ties with the coal, oil and gas companies that are on course to trigger climate catastrophe with their expansion plans.

“We now need the Lothian Pension Fund to listen to councillors and invest in climate solutions like social housing and renewable energy that will protect pensions and benefit communities here in Scotland and around the world.”

The Lothian Pension Fund is the second largest local government pension scheme in Scotland and administers the pension funds of over 92,000 members from four local authorities in the Lothians. The pension fund also manages the pensions of 90 employers, including Scottish Water, Edinburgh Napier University, VisitScotland and Heriot-Watt University.

The motion from City of Edinburgh councillors comes as part of a global push to divest money from fossil fuels.

To date, 1,552 institutions worth $40.50 trillion have committed to divest, including the Welsh Parliament, the London Boroughs of Islington and Lambeth, Cardiff Council, and 100 UK universities including Edinburgh, Glasgow and Aberdeen.

Lothian Pension Fund invests over £164 million in fossil fuel polluters

A new report has revealed that the City of Edinburgh Council’s own pension fund has £164,691,111 invested in climate-polluting fossil fuel companies. The revelations come despite the council declaring a climate emergency in 2019 and committing to become a net-zero carbon city by 2030.

The report found that overall in Scotland, £1.2 billion was invested in fossil fuel companies by council pension funds. None of the 20 Scottish councils that have declared a climate emergency have taken action to end their investments in the coal, oil and gas firms chiefly responsible for driving this crisis.

The report by Friends of the Earth Scotland, Platform and Friends of the Earth England, Wales and Northern Ireland was compiled from Freedom of Information requests.

Lothian Pension Fund is the second largest local government pension scheme in Scotland and administers the pensions of 84,000 members. (4) Lothian is operated by the City of Edinburgh Council on behalf of East Lothian, West Lothian and Midlothian.

Lothian Pension Fund invests £771,000 in Exxon and £1.47 million in Royal Dutch Shell. The companies are co-owners of the Mossmorran plants in Fife, which is Scotland’s third largest climate polluter. The Scottish Government is currently considering launching a public inquiry after 5,000 complaints were submitted about the flaring, air and noise pollution from the site.

The pension fund also invests £9.1 million in the Italian oil company, Eni. Both Eni and Exxon are involved in the construction of a major gas export development in Mozambique which is associated with increased militarisation and violence in the region, and led to the displacement of local communities.

Strathclyde Pension Fund was the worst offender in Scotland after being found to have £508 million invested in companies such as Shell, BP and Exxon. This is despite Glasgow hosting the UN climate conference later this year and Councillors declaring a climate emergency in May 2019.

As fossil fuel company stocks have fallen in value in recent years, local councils have lost out. £194 million of value was wiped off the oil and gas investments of the Scottish council pensions between 2017-20 with the Strathclyde Pension Fund alone losing £46 million and Lothian Pension Fund losing £36 million.

Across the UK, total fossil fuel investments in the pension funds stood at £9.9 billion – an average of £1,450 per scheme member.

Over half of Scotland’s universities have committed to divest from fossil fuel companies, including Edinburgh, Stirling and Dundee Universities, alongside local government funds in Southwark, Islington, Lambeth, Waltham Forest, and Cardiff.

Alan Munro from local campaign group Divest Lothian said: “We all deserve a future worth retiring for, but continued investment in fossil fuels by our politicians and local councils threaten that future, both here in the Lothians and around the world.

“We’ve been campaigning for some time for the Lothian Pension Fund to make a strong commitment to climate action and divest from the fossil fuel companies. Public institutions have a moral duty to put the long-term well-being of their communities first.

“This recent report shows that, up to present, the Lothian Pension Fund has not heeded our calls for divestment. As Scotland prepares to host the UN COP26 Climate conference in November, the fund has an opportunity to show climate leadership and invest more in renewable energy and other sustainable and ethical sectors so that we can create a better future.”

Ric Lander, Divestment Campaigner at Friends of the Earth Scotland, commented: “Many local authorities have declared a climate emergency and have plans in place to bring down emissions from transport, buildings and waste.

“Pension fund investments are currently working against this progress by continuing to back the ageing fossil fuel economy. Local councillors have the opportunity to show leadership on climate action by telling fund managers to divest from fossil fuels.

“Scottish council pensions are directly invested in the continued search for new fossil fuels through their ownership of companies like Shell and BP. This drive is undermining efforts to curb the climate emergency here in Scotland and doing untold damage to vulnerable communities around the world.”

Stephen Smellie is Deputy Convenor of UNISON Scotland, who are the largest union representing local government pension fund members. He reacted: “It is disappointing that the people who manage the pension funds of local government workers are oblivious to the climate crisis that is facing us.

“Workers care deeply about a sustainable future for their children, and if pension funds consulted with the people whose money they are investing they would know that. Instead, they continue to be part of the climate crisis problem rather than being part of the solution that they could be if they increased investments in sustainable alternatives.

“The value of the fossil fuel investments is high but only a small percentage of the funds’ overall investments so there is no financial justification for maintaining investments in coal, fracking or further fossil fuel exploitation.”

“There is a moral and ethical case for divesting from polluting fossil fuels. But there is also a firm financial case to remove workers’ pension funds from investments that will lose value as the world moves to a low-carbon economy which is less dependent on fossil fuels.”