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13
Nov
Council pension fund invests £32m in fossil fuels despite declaring climate emergency
This is the second article in our series exploring the ethics of North Yorkshire Council’s pension fund. The first part revealed the fund invests over £20 million in tobacco companies, despite the council running anti-smoking campaigns.
Our Stray Ferret freedom of information investigation today reveals the North Yorkshire Pension Fund invests £32 million in fossil fuel companies.
The defined benefit pension scheme provides retirement benefits to 103,000 people, including staff of North Yorkshire Council and City of York Council, as well as other public bodies.
Maximising pension fund returns is financially beneficial for former employees, but it raises ethical questions when a council that has declared a climate emergency invests so heavily in companies that damage the environment.
Five years ago, a previous Stray Ferret investigation into the pension find discovered it was
The fact that the council has continued to invest in fossil fuels is disappointing for many, given this means it is boosting profitability in these companies using taxpayer money.
The fund has invested in a whole host of fossil-fuel companies, ranging from major global brands to Ecopetrol, Columbia's largest petroleum company, and KazMunayGas, which is Kazakhstan’s state-owned national oil and gas operator.
Enbridge, a Canadian firm that operates the world’s longest crude oil pipelines, receives £12.7 million from the pension fund.
Other sizable investments include £7.4 million in Swiss mining ompany Glencore, £3.8 million in American multinational NOV, which provides services to the oil and gas industry, and £3.7 million in Cheniere, the largest liquified natural gas exporter in the US.
Photo by ClickerHappy
'Wake up to the realities'
All these investments are in contrast to the council’s Beyond Carbon plan, that sets a target date of 2030 to reach net-zero neutrality, as well as its wider climate change strategy that seeks to work with residents and businesses to “achieve the ambition to be a carbon negative region by 2040”.
The council declared a climate emergency in July 2022.
However, there are signs of improvement.
Our previous 2022 investigation found that the pension invested £70 million in fossil fuels, so this figure has reduced significantly, and the council has divested its investments in BP and Shell.
A spokesperson from Fossil Free North Yorkshire said:
Fossil Free North Yorkshire has been campaigning to get North Yorkshire Council pension fund to reduce its investments in fossil fuels since 2020. Over this time they have reduced their holding from £75.9 million in March 2022. But they must go further.
It is extremely disappointing that they continue to invest in fossil fuels, especially when it’s obvious to all that we are facing an unprecedented climate crisis. It’s even more galling because North Yorkshire Council declared a climate emergency in 2022 and subsequently published its climate change strategy 2023–2030 where it plans to be ‘net zero’ in its operational carbon use. Unfortunately, this plan does not include the pension fund.
The pension fund must wake up to the realities of the real world and stop investing in climate damaging fossil fuel linked companies.
What the council says
When we approached the council for comment, a spokesperson asked us to contact Border to Coast because it was "responsible for making all investment decisions on behalf of North Yorkshire Pension Fund".
A Border to Coast spokesperson said:
Our approach is to protect and enhance long-term value, helping to fund pension payments for local government pension scheme members many years into the future, while supporting positive change at the companies in which we invest.
To read its full statement see here.
The Stray Ferret also contacted the chair of the council's pension fund committee, Cllr Angus Thompson, but received no reply.
You can read the third part of our investigation this weekend.
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