USS says it has divested from those companies that earn more than 25% of their revenue from thermal coal mining [1]. This makes a useful headline but how does it measure up in reality? A recent analysis shows that USS remains invested in 43 of the biggest coal companies in the world, amongst those listed […]
One of the (many!) disturbing trends of the past few years in the climate emergency is the backtracking of major banks on their climate targets and ambitions, and on their fossil fuel investment policies. This includes household names such as HSBC, NatWest and Santander. USS holds £ 36 million in Banco Santander Chile, £ 34 […]
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 the […]
USS invests in over 40% of the companies supporting Israel’s genocidal actions in Palestine and their illegal occupation of Palestinian territory A recent ‘Don’t Buy into the Occupation’ report [1] has identified 104 companies that are involved in one or more of eleven “listed activities” that “contribute to the maintenance of Israel’s unlawful presence in the Occupied Palestinian Territories (OPT), […]
The largest student campaigning network in the UK, People and Planet have just produced their 2025/26 league. This is compiled annually and ranks 147 UK universities by sustainable and ethics criteria. People and Planet and this league table has been very influential in getting 117 UK universities to divest their own funds from fossil fuels. And […]
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 […]
A new report by the group Market Forces has identified a global list of 200 companies with the biggest coal, oil and gas expansion plans. This group of companies is called the Fossil Fuel Expansion Index, or the FFX 200. Every company in this index is actively undermining the climate goals of the Paris Agreement and impeding […]
(posted on AgeWage Nov 22 2025) An article by Dooley Harte Pension Official UCU In this piece Dooley analyses the links between pension investments and companies complicit with the destruction in Gaza. Focussing on USS he asks why USS has not followed the example of some other European pension funds and divested from ‘Israeli institutions, […]
We’ve now gathered over 900 signatures from a wide range of universities—across current, retired, and deferred members—including some of the UK’s leading climate scientists. We want to send a strong message to USS so we’re keeping the petition open until the end of October, and we’d really appreciate help spreading the word. Please share the petition link with friends and colleagues […]
Which? the Consumers’ Association has analysed 16 UK current account providers to identify which are the worst offenders with regard to fund further expansion of coal, oil and gas production. The seven ‘worst offenders’ were Chase (part of JP Morgan), Santander, HSBC, Barclays, Lloyds, NatWest and Danske Bank. USS invests in all these banks with […]
Until recently we thought that USS had decided against investing in Sizewell C but it seems they may have been offered a better financial deal by the Labour government. In summary the proposed power station to be built by EDF is an over complex design, highly likely to run over-budget and take at least 17 […]
A new report has studied the twelve largest publicly-owned producers of oil and gas – the “Dirty Dozen” – finding that these companies have been retreating from their climate commitments and have announced plans for the expansion of fossil fuel production in the coming years. Furthermore, there has been an increasing concentration of ownership of […]
