February 14, 2017

Revealed: London Pensions Funding Trump’s Oil Pipelines

For immediate release: 14/02/17

CONTACT: Martin Watters +44 (0)7432 107787 divestlondon@gmail.com

LONDON PENSIONS FUNDING TRUMP’S OIL PIPELINES

CITY HALL STILL INVESTING IN FOSSIL FUELS DESPITE SADIQ’S ELECTION PLEDGE

LONDON — Today is has been revealed that City Hall’s pensions are funding the world’s most polluting fossil fuel projects– including controversial oil pipelines backed by Donald Trump, such as the Dakota Access Pipeline– nine months after Mayor Sadiq Khan promised divestment from the fossil fuel industry in his election manifesto.

The £4.5 billion pension fund, managed by the London Pension Fund Authority (LPFA) on behalf thousands of workers across the capital, recently revealed its full holdings which include investments in coal, tar sands, gas, oil and pipeline projects.

During his 2015 election campaign, Sadiq Khan promised to divest the fund of its remaining investments in fossil fuel industries. The pledge remains unfulfilled, despite the London Assembly passing a motion last December calling on City Hall and the LPFA to fully divest.

Divest London campaigner Chelsea Edwards said:

“In August 2015 Sadiq Khan’s ‘greener, cleaner’ election pledge to divest from fossil fuels was applauded, especially by the London Assembly who have passed motions two years running to fully divest City Hall’s £4.5 billion fund. Yet nine months since he took office the London Pension Fund still props up the companies profiting most from catastrophic climate change.”

“Mayor Khan is to be congratulated for his disapproval of Trump’s ‘Muslim ban’ and the President’s state visit to the UK. But now it’s time for him to honour his election pledge to divest from all dirty fossil fuels and ensure our pensions aren’t funding Trump’s internationally condemned oil projects.”

Co-director of the UK Tar Sands Network Suzanne Dhaliwal added:

“It is essential that London show global leadership and divest now from the Dakota Access Pipeline to set an example that we cannot continue to fund projects that devastate indigenous rights and push us further into climate chaos. With Trump and Trudeau hell bent on pushing forward with tar sands expansion and associated pipelines, our collective action lies in stopping capital flowing from London.”

Eriel Deranger of Indigenous Climate Action stated:

“Indigenous communities in Alberta’s tar sands and North Dakota have been calling for action to end unsanctioned expansion in our territories. Divestment from tar sands, fracking, coal and dirty fossil fuels that violate the rights of Indigenous peoples and exacerbate climate change will ensure these projects become energy economies of the past.”

Companies directly funded from the London Pension Fund include:

  • Energy Transfer Partners and ConocoPhilips – the companies behind the controversial Dakota Access Pipeline, condemned by Native American groups for threatening water supplies and sacred land.
  • North America’s largest pipeline company, Kinder Morgan, which stands to profit from the Trump-backed Dakota and Keystone XL projects, as well as it’s namesake pipeline transferring tar sands oil from Canada.
  • The Energy & Minerals Group, a multi-billion financier of US fracking ventures, including those of fracking pioneer Aubrey McClendon, who died a day after being indicted by a federal US court on charges of conspiring to rig oil and gas bids.
  • Oil giants Shell, Exxon Mobil, Gazprom, Petrobras, Total, BP, Suncor, as well as gas company Chevron and coal giants Rio Tinto, Glencore and BHP-Billiton.

Divest London is a grassroots citizens’ movement pushing institutions across the capital to divest from fossil fuels. They are part of the global Fossil Free divestment movement. Divest London is urging for London to join cities such as Berlin, Sydney, Oslo, Toronto, San Francisco, Seattle, Melbourne as well as the 689 institutions in 76 countries who have committed to divest from the fossil fuel industry.

NOTES:

  1. A full breakdown of the investment holdings of the LPFA can be found via Freedom of Information requests here
  2. For more on the campaign to divest from fossil fuels, see the Fossil Free UK website
  3. You can follow the campaign to Divest London on Facebook and Twitter
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