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To: Westminster City Council

Divest City of Westminster Borough from Fossil Fuels

1. Immediately freeze any new investment in the top 200 publicly-traded fossil fuel companies
2. Divest from direct ownership and any commingled funds that include fossil fuel public equities and corporate bonds within 5 years.

Why is this important?

The 33 London local authorities’ pension funds are investing £1,882 million in fossil fuel companies, averaging just over 6% of their total pension investments. Westminster with 7.8% of its total pension invested in fossil fuels is among the 10 London councils with the highest percentage investments.

Why Divest?

Local authorities in the UK led the way on divesting from apartheid in the 1980s. They can do so again to challenge catastrophic climate change.

Moral Argument - Financial Argument – Public Benefit Argument

Pensions are for our and our families’ future. But that future is threatened by fossil fuel extraction. It is also a financial argument. When governments finally take climate change seriously and legislate to leave fossil fuels in the ground, shares in oil, gas and coal will become worthless. Funds which don’t invest in fossil fuels often perform as well or better than fossil-fuel heavy funds, so divestment does not mean that existing pension funds lose out. And it is a public benefit argument. By investing this capital into renewable energy, public transport and social housing, local government could create jobs and boost local economies, while protecting pensions.

London, United Kingdom

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Updates

2017-05-08 06:24:24 -0400

50 signatures reached

2017-03-02 16:16:13 -0500

25 signatures reached

2016-09-02 10:49:38 -0400

10 signatures reached