Subject Factsheets
*NEW* Palantir: the company we can do without – 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 background.
*New* No coal in USS? – USS says it has divested from most coal companies but a recent analysis shows that USS remains invested in 43 of the biggest coal companies in the world including one wit the 5th largest expansion plans and another which is the 11th biggest producer in the world. Read more.
Thames Water – after purchases since 2017, USS owned 20% of Thames Water and have had a seat on the Board. This was their largest single investment. Under USS “stewardship”, in that period Thames Water’s pollution record has been appalling, its financial situation has dramatically deteriorated, USS has received no interest or dividends and the ~£1,000 million USS invested is now worth nothing – read more. (Updated November 2024).
The Weapons Industries – USS holds investments in a large fraction of the world’s largest armaments companies, many of which supply weapons to countries engaged in large-scale human rights violations. Read more.
Glencore – this mining company is a leading corporate contributor to global carbon emissions and USS has held Glencore shares for at least ten years. In that period the company has been found guilty of a web of bribery and corruption on a global scale. Other large pension funds have divested on ethical grounds but USS appears untroubled. Details here.
Shell – USS claim to be helping companies like Shell transition to clean energy. The evidence for this is non-existent, as is clear from Shell’s own annual reports. Read more.
USS current holdings – an excel file listing USS’s top 100, and all holdings, as of March 31st 2026 is here.
Reports on the Climate Emergency
USS’s Climate-Damaging Investments: USS’s equity holdings reveal multiple investments in the companies behind the most climate damage. Universities and other pension funds have divested and surveys reveal popular support for this. We list actions USS should take now – read more.
Critique of USS Climate Report: In 2022 USS published their Task Force on Climate Related Financial Disclosures report – their response to the climate emergency. We analysed this in a detailed report, finding continued investment in fossil fuels and the institutions financing new projects, and an alarming paucity of data on the carbon emissions in the USS portfolios. Read more here.
USS and ethical investing
USS has an ethical policy but it does not apply to the majority of its investments. The bulk of USS investments in the public markets are through its Defined Benefit (“Retirement Income Builder”) scheme. Here, USS says it is its legal duty to ignore ethical issues unless they don’t “pose a risk of significant financial detriment to the scheme and we had good reason to think that the scheme’s members shared each other’s concerns about the non-financial factors”. In practice, this means that USS continues to invest in companies responsible for the most egregious violations of human rights, corporate corruption and climate damage, as long as this is profitable. USS have also failed to reasonably assess members’ views on ethical investments, and this lack of information means that the second of USS’s criteria for applying ethics to investments is never satisfied.
USS policies
“Engagement works, divestment doesn’t”. We asked USS for evidence to back this critical argument behind their policy of “engagement” with companies, rather than divestment. They first sent us a single paper, apparently unaware that this was financed by an organisation which is heavily funded by the fossil fuel lobby. Later they sent a number of other works, but an examination of these shows that none in fact support their strategy. Read more.
“Fiduciary duty prevents us divesting from fossil fuels“– USS claim that their duty to generate the best returns forbids them from divesting from fossil fuels. But the evidence is that fossil fuels have not been a good investment and are even more unlikely to be so in future. Read more.
Every reasonable effort has been made to ensure accuracy in reporting.
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