A group of academics has drafted a private letter to USS regarding their investment in Thames Water. I think most of you know the story – USS is the main pension fund for UK academics, and they are a major shareholder of Thames Water. USS invested nearly £1 billion in Thames Water, made despite many […]
The UN has published an updated database of 214 businesses involved in activities in illegal Israeli settlements in the Occupied Palestinian Territories, linked to adverse impacts on human rights. As of June 2026, USS has investments in 20 of these listed companies. The UK Foreign Secretary has stated that “The British government agrees that there […]
Given that the Climate Emergency is already causing death and misery around the world one might expect fossil fuels to be excluded from its Ethical Funds (available to members in the DC part of the scheme). However careful reading of the USS 2026 TCFD report reveals that the carbon intensity of the ‘Ethical Growth’ fund […]
How often has USS voted against the company in AGMs on Climate votes? The answer is – in only 5 environmental climate votes in 244 meetings – little more than 2%. None of these votes even involved a fossil fuel company, and USS did not vote against Director appointments as a protest in three leading […]
Every quarter USS publish a list of their investments. This comprises a full list (with valuations) of their ‘top 100 public investments’ and a searchable database of their smaller public investments (without valuations). Due to the limited nature of the information provided it can be difficult to judge whether a company appearing as ‘new’ to […]
A new report “Britain’s Dirtiest Investors” identifies the top British shareholders in the world’s 12 worst carbon emitting companies – the “Dirty Dozen”. USS appears in the top 50 – in 45th place with a total of £61m invested, and £42m in Chevron alone. The British investors hold a combined £49bn in shares, which correspond to carbon emissions of 169 […]
One of USS’s top 100 investments is in Palantir, a company whose leaders subscribe to a militaristic authoritarian philosophy and whose products facilitate the violation of human rights and international law. And it’s not even a good investment. USS should get out of Palantir. Here is the full story:
If you haven’t already done so, please consider writing to your Finance Director asking them to urge USS to divest from fossil fuels https://divestuss.org/2026/04/17/write-to-your-finance-director/ Over 100 UK universities have committed to divest their own funds from fossil fuels but are still investing their staff pension contributions with USS which is continuing to invest in fossil […]
USS voting at bank AGMs Despite the many emails from members and the efforts of ShareAction, USS voted in favour of the boards at the AGMs of Santander, NatWest and HSBC. All of these banks are backtracking on their climate commitments and continuing to invest in the exploitation of fossil fuels. This appears to be […]
ShareAction are running a campaign to urge pension schemes to vote against the boards of banks that are backtracking on their climate commitments https://action.shareaction.org/page/186324/action/1?ea.url.id=9167363&forwarded=true We’ve heard from ShareAction that despite USS claiming to be worried about the Climate Crisis and saying they may vote against directors where “a company’s sustainability performance and/or disclosures fall short of expectations.” […]
Most UK universities have now divested from fossil fuels – but are continuing to pass their staff pension contributions on to USS, which refuses to do so. Thus, we are asking USS members to write to the finance director of their university (copied to the Pensions officer, and sent from their work address, if possible). […]
We have received the following response: Thank you for your email outlining your concerns around the burning of thermal coal. Firstly, we want to make clear that we see climate change as a significant financial risk – one that’s increasingly reshaping the way we look at our investments and their long-term returns. That is why […]
