Category: Uncategorized
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Do pension schemes need to do more on complicity?
(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,…
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Petition Update
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…
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Which? analyses which banks are most invested in fossil fuels (and confirms our concerns about USS investments)
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…
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Is USS going to invest in Sizewell C?
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…
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USS and the Dirty Dozen
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…
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Top 100 Public Investments Changes Sept 2024 – Dec 2024
Every quarter USS publish a list of their ‘top 100 public investments’. Here’s a brief summary of the main changes from September 2024 – December 2024. Sold doesn’t necessarily mean USS have completely sold their holding in that company, rather it has sold sufficient that it is no longer in the top 100 list. Similarly, bought…
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Legal Action for Green Pensions
The law firm Leigh Day are looking into whether legal action can be pursued against employers who do not offer ‘green pensions’ to their staff. The DB section of the USS pension scheme is definitely not a ‘green pension’. Furthermore your employers (the Universities) are being inconsistent since most of them have divested their own funds…
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DivestUSS Aims for 2025
Investment strategy – exclusions to be applied to DB fund (adapted from USS Investment Builder (DC) Ethical Guidelines) Press USS to develop and publish an investment strategy that properly encompasses known climate risks and the scientific evidence of the impact of at least 2-2.5 degrees of warming during the lifespans of young members of the scheme. …
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A fossil fuel investment paradox
Most UK universities have divested their investment portfolios entirely from fossil fuels (https://www.theguardian.com/education/2024/dec/02/more-than-three-quarters-of-uk-universities-join-fossil-fuel-pledge-say-activists). Yet the pension fund (USS) they pay into and that their staff pay into has not. Indeed as well as oil and gas companies USS invests in fracking, coal sands and the banks which fund fossil fuel exploitation. The only pension contributions…
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USS and Thames Water – 1 billion pounds of our money down the drain
After purchases since 2017, USS owns 20% of Thames Water and have a seat on the Board. This is their largest single investment. Under USS “stewardship”, in that period Thames Water’s pollution record has been appalling, its financial condition has dramatically deteriorated to “junk” status, USS has received no interest or dividends whatsoever, and the…