DORSET Council is one of three local authorities in the South West with the largest percentage of assets invested in fossil fuels. A report by environmental campaigners Friends of the Earth and Platform revealed that the pension fund of Dorset invests around 4.49 per cent of the fund’s value into fossil fuels. According to the campaigners, Dorset, Devon, and Avon council pension funds account for 58 per cent of all fossil fuel investments by Local Authority Pension Funds in the South West. Co-ordinator of East Dorset Friends of the Earth, Angela Pooley told the Daily Echo: “Our first thought on this report, along with the national Friends of the Earth, was that we should be moving away from fossil fuels and, locally, there should be no more investment at all in fossil fuels.
As Trinity College Cambridge divests, UK council pensions still hold £10bn in fossil fuels
Freedom of information requests by environmental campaigners have revealed that UK local government pensions held almost £10bn in fossil fuel companies last year, despite the trend towards climate emergency declarations.
The requests reveal the pension investment trends of more than 80 UK councils
The results of the requests, which pertained to investments held in the 2019/20 financial year, have been published today (23 February) by Friends of the Earth and Platform in the form of a report.
The organisations sent requests to 98 local authorities and 85 provided information. Collectively, these 85 councils held £9.9bn of investments in fossil fuels through their pension schemes – the equivalent of £1,450 for each person accessing a local government pension scheme in the UK.