Press release
Divest East Sussex [1]
Tuesday 20 February 2024
More info: 07596 483 272
PHOTO: http://tinyurl.com/giantmessage2 [CAPTION: ‘Time to Divest’ protest outside County Hall on 6 February 2024. Photo credit: Steve Lewis]
ANGER OVER DELAY TO VOTING ON FOSSIL FUEL DIVESTMENT
Climate campaigners to hold ‘stop dragging your feet on climate’ protest at County Hall with giant pink feet
Thursday 22 February County Hall, Lewes, 9.30am: Climate campaigners from across East Sussex and Brighton & Hove have expressed anger over the further postponement of three votes on whether the East Sussex Pension Fund should divest from fossil fuels (oil, coal & gas). A protest featuring a giant pair of pink feet will take place outside County Hall this Thursday (22 Feb), calling on East Sussex County Council (ESCC) to ‘stop dragging its feet on climate’.
The votes were originally supposed to be taking place at this Thursday’s (22 February) meeting of the East Sussex Pension Committee, the five-person decision-making body for the Fund. Currently, the next opportunity for a vote to take place will be the 19 June Pension Committee meeting – fully *nine* months after the proposals were originally made.
The East Sussex Pension Fund, which covers Brighton & Hove as well as East Sussex, is administered by 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 [2].
The three 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. Voting on the proposals was delayed pending further analysis by the Fund’s officers and advisors [3]. However, five months later this analysis is apparently still not ready.
The first of the three proposals would commit 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. [4]
The second would commit 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. [4]
And the third proposal would commit 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. [4]
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 [5].
A spokesperson for Divest East Sussex said: ‘It’s outrageous that more than four years after declaring a ‘climate emergency’, East Sussex County Council is still dragging its feet on climate action and further delaying a vote on something that it should have done ten years ago. Namely, to stop investing local people’s pensions in the giant fossil fuel companies – like Shell and BP – that are driving the climate crisis. By making a public commitment to divest from fossil companies, the East Sussex Pension Fund would be showing that East Sussex County Council doesn’t just talk-the-talk on this issue but that it also walks-the-walk: taking effective, evidence-based action wherever possible. Moreover, a recent analysis of these issues commissioned by the Fund appears to show that the commitment that we’ve long been calling for would be both fairly straightforward to implement and have no significant negative repercussions for the Fund’s overall strategy. It’s time to divest.’
ENDNOTES
[1] https://divesteastsussex.wordpress.com
[2] See p. 225 of https://democracy.eastsussex.gov.uk/documents/g5505/Public%20reports%20pack%2019th-Sep-2023%2010.00%20Pension%20Committee.pdf?T=10
[3] 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.
[4] 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] 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.files.wordpress.com/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
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