DivestSurrey

The Surrey Pension Fund has recently increased their direct investments in fossil fuels to over £145 million.

The simple fact is this. You can be in favour of massive continued support of the oil industry or you can be in favour of preventing the systematic destruction of our ecosystems. But you can't do both.

The Surrey Pension Fund insists that by engaging with fossil fuel companies encouraging them to reduce their production of carbon based fuels rather than just divesting money away from them, is a more effective way of transitioning to cleaner energy sources. A number our supporters have recently received reports from the SPF of progress made with some of the largest of these companies.

This was the feedback on "progress" with BP...

"For BP, the company has moved from having one, ‘business as usual’ scenario, to gearing up internal discussion, and public disclosure, moving to a ‘faster transition’ scenario then to an ‘even faster transition’ scenario that equates to the IAE ‘two degree’ scenario"

Unfortunately we at DivestSurrey know this is a gross misrepresentation of the truth. BP’s 2017 annual report shows that their total sales were $265billion. Alternative energy sales were $240million which represents a meagre 0.1% (1/1000th of their total sales). This figure has actually gone down since 2015, whereas oil & gas sales have gone up and reserves of oil & gas have also increased.

Trying to persuade the public that these figures are a reflection of, “a faster transition moving to an even faster transition” is absolute fantasy and a complete and utter misrepresentation of the truth.

Engagement with fossil fuel companies in the last 20 years has produced little or no progress.

DivestSurrey wants to work with the SPF, ultimately to persuade them to remove all fossil fuel investments.

We don't have much time. As David Attenborough said, "What humans do over the next 50 years will determine the fate of all life on the planet”