UK. Parliamentary pension fund steps up renewables investment, but MPs insist full divestment urgently needed
MPs and peers have today again called on Parliament’s pension fund to divest from fossil fuel assets, after its latest annual report revealed that despite an uptick in green investments the fund is still heavily reliant on fossil fuel majors.
The cross-party Divest Parliament initiative today responded to the recently released annual report from the Parliamentary Contributory Pension Fund (PCPF), which revealed that the fund has significant increased its interest in low carbon assets while reducing its exposure to some high carbon businesses.
The report shows that the fund’s holdings in fossil fuel companies have decreased due to the use of ‘low-carbon’ investment vehicles, while for the first time five per cent of the fund’s investments are dedicated to renewable infrastructure.
However, while the fund’s holdings in carbon intensive companies have fallen it still retains an £8m stake in Royal Dutch Shell and £4.4m in BP PLC. As such, the group of 360 serving and former MPs, including all Labour leadership candidates, the leaders of the Liberal Democrats and the SNP and a number of senior Conservatives, has again called for the trustees of the PCPF to join more than 1,000 financial institutions worldwide in divesting fully from fossil fuels.
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