Campaigners took to Dorchester this week to call on Dorset Pension Fund to stop investing in fossil fuel companies.

Dorset Action says Dorset Pension Fund is still investing £128 million of their pension member's money in "environment-damaging, carbon-emitting fossil fuel companies" and should instead invest in a brighter, greener future.

Dorset Action was joined by several campaign groups outside County Hall, including Extinction Rebellion, Churches Together Ecology Group, Dorset Climate Action Network, Dorchester town councillors and the Red Rebels.

Campaigners handed out leaflets to passers-by and aimed to give a visual reminder to Dorset Pension Fund with their 'stop' funding fossil fuel companies before it's too late and 'go' invest in something positive.

Campaigner Julie-Ann Booker said that as a member of the Dorset pension scheme, she has never been asked for her opinion on where her money should be invested.

"I can't believe that on the one hand Dorset Council is saying how great it is to have got a £19 million grant from the Government to de-carbonise their buildings and estate, but on the other hand they are prepared to invest more than six times that amount in fossil fuel companies that are generating carbon emissions at an unprecedented rate," she said.

Dr Sandra Reeves, who attended the event, said Dorset Pension Fund should follow the advice of Sir David Attenborough who said: "It is crazy that our banks and our pensions are investing in fossil fuels, when these are the very things that are jeopardising the future we are saving for."

Sandra said: "And it's not just Sir David's opinion, global investment firm BlackRock has also said that divesting from fossil fuels will not do any financial harm to pension portfolio performance and may be economically beneficial as the fossil fuel market begins to struggle and shrink."

Caz Dennett from Dorset Action said: "I know it can seem like a boring topic, but it is important to talk about pensions and where the vast sums of money are being invested.

"In total, Local Government Pension Schemes across the UK are currently investing £10 billion in fossil fuel companies and those funds should be used to invest in and protect our future.

"Whether you are a Dorset Pension Fund member or a council tax payer, you deserve to have a say in this matter. So, if anyone would like to join in a community conversation on pensions and fossil fuel divestment, we are holding an online discussion next Tuesday. Come along, have your voice heard, listen to others and share ideas to bring positive change."

For more information about the discussion, visit dtaction.co.uk

Dorset Council is the administering authority for the Local Government Pension Scheme in Dorset.

Councillor Andy Canning, chairman of the Pension Fund Committee, said: "Dorset has delegated its responsibilities as an administering authority to the Pension Fund Committee which has a duty to scheme members and their employers to ensure that their contributions to the pension fund are invested appropriately to make returns sufficient to pay benefits to scheme members when they fall due. This duty overrides any other considerations.

"In addition to this event, we have received a large number of questions from members of the public regarding the pension fund's approach to investments in fossil fuels and we welcome this interest in this very important topic which was discussed at length at the meeting of the committee in September 2020.

"The approach agreed by the committee in September 2020 was not to divest completely from companies involved in the sourcing and refining of fossil fuels, instead we will seek to reduce investment in all high carbon emitting companies and influence the demand for fossil fuels and their financing, not just their supply."

Investment consultants, Mercer, presented to Dorset Council that a "strategy of decarbonisation can deliver significantly greater reductions in the carbon footprint of investments than can be achieved by divestment".

Cllr Canning explains that divestment is a transfer of ownership that does not directly lead to a reduction in either the supply or the demand for fossil fuels but it does remove the opportunity to influence companies by working with them to transition to a lower carbon future.

He added: "I would like to add, however, that targeted divestment remains an option from individual companies who will not positively engage.

"Significant decarbonisation has been and will continue to be achieved through the transition of assets to the management of Brunel Pension Partnership, the pension fund's Local Government Pension Scheme investment pooling manager. Ten per cent of the pension fund's assets are now invested in Brunel's sustainable equities fund, which is 20 per cent of our total equities and is the fund's largest single investment. All other Brunel funds are committed to a policy of a sever per cent year on year reduction in their carbon footprint."

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