Press release
Divest East Sussex [1]
Wednesday 13 June 2024
More info: 07596 483 272
PHOTO: http://tinyurl.com/giantfeet [Campaigners outside County Hall with a giant pair of pink cardboard ‘Divest Now’ feet this February, protesting ESCC’s continued ‘foot-dragging’ over fossil fuel divestment. Photo: Divest East Sussex]
OUTRAGE AS CLIMATE VOTE DELAYED YET AGAIN
East Sussex Pension Committee vote on fossil fuel divestment will now not take place before September – more than a year after proposals were originally made
Wednesday 13 June: Climate campaigners and members of the East Sussex Pension Fund have expressed outrage, after it emerged that voting on proposals to divest the Fund from the giant fossil fuel companies that are driving the climate crisis has been delayed yet again. The additional delay [2] means that voting on the proposals cannot take place at next Wednesday’s (19 June) Pension Committee meeting and therefore cannot now take place before the 25 September meeting – fully a year after they were originally made.
The East Sussex Pension Fund, which covers Brighton & Hove as well as East Sussex, is administered by East Sussex County Council (ESCC). It currently has tens of millions of pounds of local people’s pension monies invested in oil and gas companies like Shell and BP [3].
The three fossil fuel divestment proposals were made by Cllrs Georgia Taylor (Green, Forest Row & Groombridge) and David Tutt (Liberal Democrat, Eastbourne – St Anthony’s) – both of whom sit on the Pension Committee – at the September 2023 Pension Committee meeting [4]. Voting on the proposals was originally postponed pending further analysis by the Fund’s officers and advisors [5]. Nine months later this analysis is still not ready, meaning that voting cannot now take place before the Pension Committee meeting on 25 September [6].
A long list of organisations and individuals have called on the Fund to divest from fossil fuels, including: Bexhill Town Council, Brighton & Hove City Council, Hastings Borough Council, Lewes District and Town Councils, Peacehaven Town Council, Rother District Council, Saleshurst & Robertsbridge Parish Council, Maria Caulfield MP (Cons, Lewes), Caroline Lucas Green MP (Green, Brighton Pavilion) and UNISON [7].
Campaigners are now planning a ‘March of the giant scissors’ to County Hall on 9 July (the date of ESCC’s next Full Council meeting) to demand that ESCC ‘cut the ties’ between itself and Big Oil [8].
Pension Fund member Sarah Hazlehurst said:
‘It’s outrageous that more than four-and-a-half years after East Sussex County Council declared a ‘climate emergency’, the East Sussex Pension Fund is further delaying voting on a proposal that it stop investing local people’s pensions in the giant fossil fuel companies that are driving the climate crisis.
‘Last year the Fund spent £55k on a report that appeared to show that such a move would have no significant negative repercussions for the Fund and be fairly straightforward to implement [9]. Yet a vote on doing so was delayed, citing the need for further analysis.
‘Nine months later this additional analysis has still not been completed, meaning that the earliest that voting could now take place is September 2024 – fully one year after these proposals were originally raised.
‘It’s time to for the Fund to start taking the climate crisis seriously, stop its endless foot-dragging, and vote now to stop investing in fossil fuels.’
ENDNOTES
[1] https://divesteastsussex.wordpress.com
[2] Following its initial postponement in September 2022, the vote was postponed again in February: https://divesteastsussex.wordpress.com/2024/02/20/press-release-anger-over-further-delay-to-votes-on-fossil-fuel-divestment/
[3] See p. 225 of https://democracy.eastsussex.gov.uk/documents/g5505/Public%20reports%20pack%2019th-Sep-2023%2010.00%20Pension%20Committee.pdf?T=10
[4] The first of the three proposals would have committed the Fund to make no new investments in fossil fuel extractors; to fully divest from all fossil fuel extractor public equities and corporate bonds within five years; and to make no new private equity investments that include fossil fuel extractors. The second would have commited the Fund to exclude the public equity or corporate bond of any fossil fuel extractor that has failed to commit to ‘no new fossil fuels’ by the September 2024 Pension Committee meeting; and to not make any new private equity investments in such fossil extractors. The third proposal would have commited the Fund to fully divest from all thermal coal public equities and corporate bonds within one year; and to make no new private equity investments that include thermal coal. See items 27.6, 27.7 and 27.8 of https://democracy.eastsussex.gov.uk/documents/g5505/Printed%20minutes%2019th-Sep-2023%2010.00%20Pension%20Committee.htm?T=1&CT=2
[5] See items 27.8 and 27.9 of the minutes for the September 2023 Pension Committee meeting: https://democracy.eastsussex.gov.uk/documents/g5505/Printed%20minutes%2019th-Sep-2023%2010.00%20Pension%20Committee.htm?T=1&CT=2. Councillors Tutt and Taylor were originally assured that the votes would take place at the 22 February 2024 meeting.
[6] See p. 229 of the report pack for the 19 June 2024 Pension Committee meeting, where the ‘status’ of the further analysis is described as ‘In progress’. https://democracy.eastsussex.gov.uk/documents/g5935/Public%20reports%20pack%2019th-Jun-2024%2010.00%20Pension%20Committee.pdf?T=10
[7] Hastings Borough Council: ‘Campaigners’ joy as Hastings council agrees fossil fuel divestment’, 14 April 2016, Hastings Observer, http://www.hastingsobserver.co.uk/news/local/campaigners-joy-as-hastings-council-agrees-fossil-fuel-divestment-1-7328414. Lewes Town Council: https://fossilfreehastings.wordpress.com/2017/03/07/lewes-town-council-calls-for-east-sussex-pension-fund-to-ditch-its-investments-in-oil-coal-and-gas. Lewes District Council: https://www.sussexexpress.co.uk/news/politics/lewes-council-leader-back-end-east-sussex-pension-fund-investing-fossil-fuels-2886968. Brighton & Hove City Council: https://fossilfreehastings.wordpress.com/2017/04/06/brighton-council-calls-for-east-sussex-pension-fund-to-ditch-fossil-fuels (BHCC reiterated this call in October 2020 and then again in February 2022). Maria Caulfield: https://divesteastsussex.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/08/caulfield-letter-snip_opt.jpg. Peacehaven Town Council: https://democracy.eastsussex.gov.uk/documents/b14993/Item%207%20-%20Appendix%206%20-%20Letter%20from%20Peacehaven%20Town%20Council%2021st-Sep-2020%2009.00%20Pension%20Committee.pdf?T=9. Bexhill Town Council: https://www.bexhilltowncouncil.gov.uk/shared/attachments.asp?f=c03eef87%2D6214%2D423b%2D8388%2Dfc2c9a7c0538%2Epdf&o=210818%2DFull%2DCouncil%2DAugust%2DMinutes%2DDRAFT%2Epdf. UNISON: https://www.unison.org.uk/news/press-release/2018/01/unison-launches-campaign-divest-pensions-carbon. Rother District Council: https://divesteastsussex.wordpress.com/2023/02/21/rother-district-council-backs-call-for-fossil-fuel-divestment/. Saleshurst & Robertsbridge Parish Council: https://divesteastsussex.wordpress.com/2023/03/21/press-release-robertsbridge-parish-council-calls-on-county-council-to-stop-investing-in-fossil-fuels/#more-2531
[8] https://divesteastsussex.wordpress.com/2024/05/30/join-us-in-lewes-on-tues-9-july-to-cut-the-ties-between-east-sussex-county-council-big-oil/
[9] https://divesteastsussex.wordpress.com/2023/09/22/has-the-east-sussex-pension-funds-50k-whitewash-report-accidentally-shown-how-easy-it-would-be-for-it-to-divest-from-fossil-fuels/
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