PHOTOS: Giant pink feet taken to County Hall in ‘foot-dragging’ protest over climate vote

[Update on 23 February: It’s now been confirmed that the votes on the three fossil fuel divestment proposals will now not take place until the 19 June 2024 Pension Committee meeting *at the earliest* – fully nine months after the proposals were originally made – and possibly not until even later. This is plainly outrageous, and further proof that the Fund’s own whitewash report on ‘Divestment v engagement’ – which the Fund wasted as much as £50k of public money on – was never intended to be anything other than a cover for continuing business as usual.]

Press release
Divest East Sussex [1]
Thursday 22 February 2024

More info: 07596 483 272

PHOTO: http://tinyurl.com/giantfeet [The giant ‘Divest Now’ feet (and sign) outside County Hall, 22 February 2024. Photo: Divest East Sussex]; http://tinyurl.com/divestfoot [The giant pink ‘DIVEST’ foot outside County Hall, 22 February 2024. Photo: Divest East Sussex]; http://tinyurl.com/divestcake [Pension Fund member Sarah Hazlehurst with cake and divestment birthday message, outside County Hall, 22 February 2024. Photo: Divest East Sussex]

GIANT PINK FEET TAKEN TO COUNTY HALL IN ‘FOOT-DRAGGING’ PROTEST OVER CLIMATE VOTE
Anger over further delay to votes on fossil fuel divestment

Thursday 22 February County Hall, Lewes: Climate campaigners staged a protest with a pair of giant pink feet, labelled ‘DIVEST’ and ‘NOW’, outside County Hall in Lewes this morning, calling on East Sussex County Council (ESCC) and the East Sussex Pension Fund to ‘stop dragging their feet on climate’. The protest – which was timed to coincide with a meeting of the East Sussex Pension Committee, the Fund’s decision-making body – took place after voting on three fossil fuel motions, originally proposed last September, was postponed for a second time.

East Sussex County Council: stop dragging your feet on fossil fuel divestment! Outside County Hall, Lewes, 22 February 2024. Photo: Divest East Sussex

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.’

Pension Fund member Sarah Hazlehurst, who will turn 65 next week and start receiving her ESPF pension, added: ‘The best birthday present I could have when I start receiving my East Sussex pension next week would be a commitment by the East Sussex Pension Fund to stop investing in the fossil fuel companies that are wrecking the climate and jeopardising all our futures.’