Council admits dismal failure of policy on fossil fuels

Press Release
Divest East Sussex [1]
1 December 2020
More info: 07596 483 272

COUNCIL ADMITS DISMAL FAILURE OF POLICY ON FOSSIL FUELS

Five years after Paris Climate Agreement not a single oil and gas major aligned with 1.5°C pathway, chair of East Sussex Pension Committee concedes



Tuesday 1 December: East Sussex County Council has finally admitted that its policy of ‘engaging’ with oil and gas companies like Shell and BP has failed to bring a single one of these companies into alignment with the goals of the 2015 Paris Climate Agreement – namely, to keep global warming to ‘well below 2 °C’, pursuing 1.5°C. [2] The admission comes one day after 32 organisations from across East Sussex, Brighton and Hove sent an open letter to the Council calling on it to start treating the climate emergency like an emergency [3].



County Council failing to take climate change seriously – 32 local groups

Press Release
Divest East Sussex [1]
30 November 2020
More info: 07596 483 272

COUNTY COUNCIL FAILING TO TAKE CLIMATE CHANGE SERIOUSLY – 32 LOCAL GROUPS
Open letter calls on ESCC to start treating the climate emergency like an emergency

Monday 30 November: Thirty-two organisations from across East Sussex, Brighton and Hove have sent an open letter to East Sussex County Council (ESCC) calling on it to start treating the climate emergency like an emergency.

The letter notes that, despite declaring a climate emergency in October 2019, ESCC ‘is still investing local people’s pensions in fossil fuels (oil, coal and gas) and has only formulated a plan to de-carbonise its own activities by 2050, rather than the activities of the entire County, its people, business and services.’ [2]

The signatories call on ESCC: to stop investing local people’s pensions in fossil fuels (oil, coal & gas); to rapidly develop and implement a plan for de-carbonising the whole of the County; and to publicly declare its support for the new Climate and Ecological Emergency Bill which would ensure that the UK plays its fair and proper role in limiting global warming to 1.5°C. [3]

‘You’ve declared an emergency. It’s now time to start acting like you mean it.’ – An open letter to East Sussex County Council

The following open letter has been sent to all 49 of the current Councillors on East Sussex County Council:

From cyclones in Mozambique to fires in California we’re already seeing the deadly impact of 1ºC of global warming, particularly in the Global South.

Moreover, the window for limiting global warming to 1.5ºC is rapidly closing and doing so will require dramatic cuts in carbon emissions over the next ten years. Failure to do so will lead to calamitous impacts for some of the world’s poorest people.

Yet to date, the actions taken – and the commitments made – by national and local governments here in the UK are failing to deliver the ‘rapid, far-reaching and unprecedented changes in all aspects of society’ that the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change says are required to achieve this goal.

For example, East Sussex County Council (ESCC) has declared a ‘climate emergency’ but is still investing local people’s pensions in fossil fuels (oil, coal and gas) and has only formulated a plan to de-carbonise its own activities by 2050, rather than the activities of the entire County, its people, business and services.

Council pressed on climate questions it ducked at October meeting

Press Release
Divest East Sussex [1]
24 November 2020
More info: 07596 483 272

COUNCIL PRESSED ON CLIMATE QUESTIONS IT DUCKED AT OCTOBER MEETING
Over ninety members of the public call on ESCC to tell the truth about climate & fossil fuels

Tuesday 24 November: Scores of people from across the County have re-submitted three key questions on climate change to next week’s (1 Dec) East Sussex County Council (ESCC) meeting, after these same questions went unanswered at October’s Full Council meeting [2]. Over ninety people have submitted divestment-related questions to next Tuesday’s meeting.

Tell the truth about climate change & fossil fuels! Email YOUR question to ESCC’s next Full Council meeting by 23 November.

We need YOUR* help to get Sussex County Council (ESCC) to tell the truth about climate change & fossil fuels.

Please take 2 mins to email the question below to ESCC by 4pm on 23 November – full details below.

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

Join our Zoom drop-in on Monday 9 November!

Join our Zoom drop-in on Monday 9 November (7 – 8pm) to find out more about the campaign to divest the East Sussex Pension Fund from fossil fuels (oil, coal & gas) – including what YOU can do to help make this happen.

If you’d like to take part then please email divesteastsussex@gmail.com so that we can send you a Zoom link.

You can also help spread the word about this event on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/events/3897128216984036/

0/3: County Council ducks key questions on climate

Press Release
Divest East Sussex [1]
13 October 2020
More info: 07596 483 272
PHOTO: https://tinyurl.com/esccoct19 [Supporters of the Divest East Sussex campaign outside County Hall in October 2019]

COUNTY COUNCIL DUCKS KEY QUESTIONS ON CLIMATE

Questions raised by over ninety members of the public left unanswered at Council meeting

Tuesday 13 October: East Sussex County Council (ESCC) has failed to answer three key questions about its continued investment in fossil fuels (oil, coal & gas), submitted by over ninety members of the public. The three questions, which were submitted to today’s Full Council meeting, asked the Council: (a) to acknowledge that ‘because burning fossil fuels is the key driver of global warming, the goals of the Paris Climate Agreement (to keep global warming to ‘well below 2 °C’, pursuing 1.5°C) cannot be achieved without the rapid alignment of the big fossil fuel companies with a 1.5°C pathway’; (b) to ‘give a single example of an oil or gas major that is currently aligned with a 1.5°C pathway’; and (c) to say when the East Sussex Pension Fund would divest from those oil and gas companies that fail to align themselves with a 1.5°C pathway [2].

County Council policy failing on climate – reports

Press Release
Divest East Sussex [1]
12 October 2020
More info: 07596 483 272

COUNTY COUNCIL POLICY FAILING ON CLIMATE – REPORTS

Will East Sussex County Council admit failure at tomorrow’s Full Council meeting?

Tuesday 13 October: East Sussex County Council (ESCC)’s policy of ‘engaging’ with the major oil and gas companies in which it invests has failed to bring a single such company into alignment with the goals of the Paris Climate Agreement, according to two recent assessments by Oil Change International and the Transition Pathway Initiative.



The Oil Change International analysis, published last month, found that ‘not a single climate plan released by a major oil company comes close to aligning with the urgent 1.5ºC global warming limit’ [2]. The Transition Pathway Initiative assessment, published last week, found that ‘none’ of the 59 large, publicly-listed fossil fuel companies that it examined ‘[we]re yet on track to align their emissions with a 2°C climate pathway by 2050’ – let alone a 1.5°C pathway [3].



County Council pressed on continued climate failure

Press Release
Divest East Sussex [1]
6 October 2020
More info: 07596 483 272

COUNTY COUNCIL PRESSED ON CONTINUED CLIMATE FAILURE

Over 80 people submit questions to East Sussex County Council, asking when it will divest from those oil and gas companies that fail to align themselves with a 1.5°C pathway

Tuesday 6 October: Over eighty members of the public have submitted the same three questions to next week’s (13 October) East Sussex County Council (ESCC) meeting, asking when it will divest from oil and gas companies that fail to align themselves with a 1.5°C pathway. [2]



This is a climate emergency! Email YOUR question to ESCC’s next Full Council meeting by 5 October.

We need YOUR* help to tell East Sussex County Council (ESCC) that this IS a climate emergency – and that they need to start treating it like one!

Please take 2 mins to email the question below to ESCC by 4pm on 5 October – full details below.

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

BACKGROUND

Last October East Sussex County Council declared a ‘climate emergency’. But it continues to act as though it has all the time in the world to address it.

It doesn’t.

The stark reality is that the window for limiting global warming to 1.5°C – and thereby avoiding the most calamitous impacts of climate change – is rapidly closing. And meeting this goal will require dramatic cuts in carbon emissions over the next ten years – cuts which are simply incompatible with the current business models of the giant oil and gas companies like Shell and BP.

Indeed, a new comprehensive analysis from Oil Change International has found that ‘not a single climate plan released by a major oil company comes close to aligning with the urgent 1.5ºC global warming limit’.

So it’s pure hypocrisy therefore for ESCC to declare a ‘climate emergency’ and then continue investing in the very same companies that are driving this crisis.

HOW YOU CAN HELP

ESCC will be holding its next Full Council meeting (virtually) on Tuesday 13 October. To keep the pressure up, we need as many people as possible to email them questions about this issue. They have to respond to these questions and include both your question and their response in their minutes. The deadline for you to email your question is 4pm on Monday 5 October.

Please follow the following three easy steps (estimate time required 2 – 3 mins):