Please email your ESCC candidates and urge them to sign the ABCD climate action pledge!

With local elections due to take place on 6 May, please contact your candidates for East Sussex County Council to urge them to sign the South East Climate Alliance (SECA)’s ABCD climate action pledge. The pledge commits them, if elected, to press their council to: Aim higher, Build partnerships, Communicate, and support Divestment from fossil fuels (see here for full details).

Here’s a step-by-step guide to what you need to do (estimated time needed, approx. 5 mins):

Local election candidates urged to sign climate action pledge

Press Release
Divest East Sussex [1]
13 April 2021
More info: 07596 483 272

PHOTO: https://tinyurl.com/esccstopfunding [Supporters of Divest East Sussex holding a ‘Thunberg-in’ outside County Hall in February 2020. Photo: Katie Vandyck]

LOCAL ELECTION CANDIDATES URGED TO SIGN CLIMATE ACTION PLEDGE
Candidates asked to aim high, build alliances, communicate with public and support divestment from fossil fuels



Tuesday 13 April 2021: Candidates for the 6 May local elections from across East Sussex are being asked to sign a climate action pledge that would commit them to support divesting the East Sussex Pension Fund from fossil fuels [2]. The East Sussex Pension Fund, which is administered by East Sussex County Council, currently has over £70m of local people’s pension monies invested in the giant oil and gas companies like Shell and BP [3].



Getting climate on the local election agenda: join us on Wed 14 April to find out how you can help!

Join us at 7.30pm on Wednesday 14 April to find out more about how you can help get climate change on the agenda for the 6 May local elections with the South East Climate Alliance (SECA)’s ABCD climate pledge for candidates.

Register now here : https://tinyurl.com/abcdpledge

Find out more about the pledge here and / or here.

Event co-hosted by SECA and Divest East Sussex.

‘D’ is for divestment: lobby your local election candidates to sign the ABCD climate pledge!

With local elections due to take place on 6 May, please contact your candidates for county, borough and district councils to urge them to sign the South East Climate Alliance (SECA)’s ABCD climate action pledge.  

The pledge commits them, if elected, to press their council to: Aim higher, Build partnerships, Communicate, and support Divestment from fossil fuels (see here for full details).

We’ll be posting full details of all local election candidates for East Sussex, Brighton and Hove (the area covered by the East Sussex Pension Fund) as soon as these details become available on 9 April. You can also check out the list of candidates for your postcode here: https://whocanivotefor.co.uk.

Candidates are being asked to take a photo of themselves holding a signed copy of the ABCD pledge (pictured) for circulation on social media.

If you’re based in East Sussex, Brighton or Hove and don’t have access to a colour printer then you can order a set of double-sided full-colour A4 print-out of the pledge sheet by emailing divesteastsussex@gmail.com. Please include your address and the number of pledge sheets you want.



No time limits for oil companies making catastrophic climate change inevitable – East Sussex County Council

Press Release
Divest East Sussex [1]
23 March 2021
More info: 07596 483 272

PHOTO: https://tinyurl.com/thunbergin2020 [Supporters of Divest East Sussex holding a ‘Thunberg-in’ outside County Hall in February 2020. Photo: Katie Vandyck]

NO TIME LIMITS FOR INVESTMENTS IN OIL COMPANIES THAT ARE MAKING CATASTROPHIC CLIMATE CHANGE INEVITABLE – EAST SUSSEX COUNTY COUNCIL
Brighton & Hove’s local government pension scheme needs to stop making excuses and take a stand against Big Oil, say campaigners

Tuesday 23 March 2021: The chair of the East Sussex Pension Committee (Cllr Gerard Fox) has admitted that the East Sussex Pension Fund – the local government pension scheme covering East Sussex, Brighton and Hove – has ‘not set any time limits’ on continuing to invest in oil companies that are exploring for new oil fields [2]. The statement comes in the wake of a recent warning, by the respected Transition Pathway Initiative, that ‘an almost complete and immediate stop in exploration and sanctioning of new oil fields …. [is] required to avoid locking in future oil production that would see temperatures exceed a 1.5°C increase’ [3].

We need your help to tell ESCC it’s time to get serious about fossil fuels and 1.5°C!

We need YOUR* help to tell East Sussex County Council (ESCC) it’s time to get serious about fossil fuels and 1.5°C!

Please take 2 mins to email the question below to ESCC by 4pm on Monday 15 March – full details below.

* Residents of East Sussex, Brighton and Hove – ESCC runs *your* Local Government Pension Scheme.

Call on your local councillor to support fossil free pension funds!

The majority (75%) of local councils – including East Sussex County Council and Brighton & Hove City Council – have declared a ‘climate emergency’. Many have set deadlines to de-carbonise the greenhouse gas emissions produced by their buildings and vehicles.

And yet, as a new report from Friends of the Earth, Friends of the Earth Scotland and Platform London explains: ‘for the majority of councils, their largest carbon emissions will come from their pension fund investments.’

Collectively, UK local pension funds have an estimated £10bn invested in fossil fuel (oil, coal and gas) companies. Yet many Councillors have never received a letter or an email from their constituents about these investments.

The East Sussex Pension Fund – which covers East Sussex, Brighton and Hove – currently has over £70m invested in companies like Shell and BP, and has repeatedly refused to divest, despite a long-running campaign.

If you’re a resident of East Sussex, Brighton or Hove, then please use the templates below to contact your County Councillor (or City Councillor) and urge them to take action to ensure that local workers not only have a pension for their retirement, but also a future worth retiring into.

Local councils still have billions invested in fossil fuel companies – report

Press Release
Divest East Sussex [1]
23 February 2021
More info: 07596 483 272

PHOTO: https://tinyurl.com/thunbergin2020 [Supporters of Divest East Sussex holding a ‘Thunberg-in’ outside County Hall in Lewes in February 2020. Photo: Katie Vandyck]

LOCAL COUNCILS STILL HAVE BILLIONS INVESTED IN FOSSIL FUEL COMPANIES – REPORT



Tuesday 23 February 2021: A new report, published today, has found that local government pension schemes had roughly £10bn invested in the world’s biggest oil, coal and gas companies at the end of the 2019/20 financial year [2]. This amounted to roughly £1,450 of investments for each of the schemes’ 6.8 million members. The East Sussex Pension Fund, which covers East Sussex, Brighton & Hove, currently has roughly £76.4m invested in these companies [3].



The report notes that divesting from fossil fuel companies – arguably the key drivers of the climate crisis – is necessary ‘to ensure that we have not only a pension for retirement but also a future worth retiring into’ [4]. UK public pension funds lost an estimated £2bn on their oil investments over the last four years [5].

Please write to the Leader of East Sussex County Council to demand that Cllr Fox answers the key question about fossil fuel companies and the climate that he’s now ducked 342 times!

Please use the template below to write to the Leader of East Sussex County Council (ESCC), Councillor Keith Glazier, demanding that the Chair of the East Sussex Pension Committee (Councillor Gerard Fox) finally answers the question!



County Councillor fails (again) to answer climate question submitted 342 times by members of the public

Press Release
Divest East Sussex [1]
9 February 2021
More info: 07596 483 272

PHOTO: https://tinyurl.com/thunbergin2020 [Supporters of Divest East Sussex holding a ‘Thunberg-in’ outside County Hall last February. Photo: Katie Vandyck]

COUNTY COUNCILLOR FAILS TO ANSWER CLIMATE QUESTION SUBMITTED 342 TIMES BY MEMBERS OF THE PUBLIC
Bizarre response suggests Councillor did not even read questions submitted to October and December meetings

Tuesday 9 February 2021: The chair of the East Sussex Pension Committee, Cllr Gerard Fox (Cons, Hailsham New Town) has once again ducked a question about fossil fuels and climate change that has now been submitted 342 times by members of the public.

135 members of the public re-submitted the question to today’s (9 Feb) Full Council meeting after Councillor Fox failed to answer the identical question when it was submitted by 94 people to ESCC’s October meeting and by 113 people to ESCC’s December meeting [2]. In his response, Cllr Fox claimed that the question was ‘new’, strongly suggesting that he had not actually read the questions submitted to the October and December meetings [3]. He still did not answer the question [4].