We have now received the response to our petition from Dame Kate Barker, the Chair of USS’s Board of Trustees.

We might take some encouragement from their recognition that the Climate Crisis is a significant financial risk but this is undermined by the repetition of arguments that we have heard before – ‘already making good progress on cutting portfolio emissions’, ‘need for collaborative investor and government action’, ‘engagement more effective than divestment’, ‘legal duty to invest in financial best interests of members’.

Given the urgency of the need to cut carbon emissions we struggle to understand how USS’s ambitions to address the Climate Crisis are compatible with continuing to invest in ‘Climate wrecking’ fossil fuel companies and banks, particularly those where USS’s investment holding is too small to give them a significant voice at the boardroom table (for update on USS’s investments see here).

Actions you can take now:

Support our campaign – sign up here to get campaign updates

Send us your comments on the response from USS (ussdivest@gmail.com).  We’ll summarise these and send them on to USS.

Contact your Finance Officer/Pensions Officer – 117 universities have committed to divest their own funds from fossil fuels but they are still allowing your pension contributions to be invested in fossil fuels and dirty banks.  Check here to see if your university has divested and use our template letter.

And all other suggestions very welcome!

Thanks again Paul and Bill