As delegates gather at the World Pension Summit in The Hague this week, JustMoney Movement is calling on pension trustees to address climate risk and prevent drastic economic collapse. We’ve signed an open letter alongside over 40 organisations from across Europe including ShareAction, Finance Innovation Lab, Reclaim Finance and Urgewald.
There was also several organisations representing the voice of younger savers, including SOS UK, Green New Deal Rising and the Student Christian Movement.
Pension funds control trillions in assets and have enormous influence over which industries receive funding. Currently, many underestimate climate risk and continue investing in fossil fuels—the same industries destabilising both our climate and long-term economic security.
The letter urges pension trustees and staff to:
- Acknowledge the ample evidence from economists, actuaries, earth scientists and legal experts that climate change risks destabilising the economy, threatening the value of our pension and those of future generations of workers.
- Ensure that the views and long-term interests of all savers, including those under 35, are heard and represented in key strategy decisions.
- Demand that companies and governments urgently stop the development of new fossil fuel projects and facilitate a rapid and just green transition.
- Stop all new financial flows to companies pursuing fossil fuel development.
- (Re)commit to the Paris Agreement clause “to align all financial flows with a path towards low emissions and climate solutions”, and only employ consultants and asset managers that are similarly aligned.
Read the full letter here.
This letter is a necessary step to put pressure on pension funds to stop investing in fossil fuels that are damaging both the climate and our pensions by making the future unstable for when many people will retire.
You can take action too.
As part of the Better Pensions Coalition, we are calling on the UK Government to make the UK pension system greener and fairer. A key part of this is amending the Pension Schemes Bill, which is currently being considered by MPs. The amendment seeks to phase out fossil fuel investment, starting with thermal coal.
Speak up for greener pensions by taking these two simple actions today: