13 November 2024
Dear Chancellor of the Exchequer,
CC: Secretary of State for Energy and Net Zero; Parliamentary Secretary for His Majesty's Treasury and Work and Pensions
We, the undersigned, celebrate the move by our trade union, Equity, to a brand new pension fund that extensively restricts direct investment in fossil fuel companies. Instead, our new fund aims to invest in companies considered to align positively with the UN's sustainable development goals, such as those supporting the transmission and generation of renewable energy.
This progress isn’t just good for our planet and our pockets – it’s hugely popular too. Research by Make My Money Matter shows that just one in five people in the UK believe their retirement savings should invest in fossil fuel developers. By contrast, two-thirds of all British pension holders want their scheme to invest in clean energy.
Clearly, the appetite is there to put our money into companies offering solutions to the climate and nature crises we face. Now we need to harness the extraordinary, untapped potential of our pensions to build a safer world.
You, as Chancellor of our new Labour government, have a once-in-a-generation opportunity to unlock this potential - starting with the Pension Schemes Bill.
We welcome Labour's manifesto pledge to mandate that financial institutions and FTSE 100 companies align their businesses with meeting the 1.5°C physical limit on global overheating. The announcement of a landmark pensions review and the new Pension Schemes Bill, aimed at delivering investment for British communities and a more dignified retirement for workers, is greatly encouraging.
This next decade is crucial. To stay within safe heating limits and ensure a secure country for the British public, the UK needs an estimated £2.4 trillion between now and 2035 for building wind, solar, grid upgrades and storage, as well as cleaner transport and warmer homes.
There is £3 trillion in UK pensions. But, because of regulatory obstacles and a lack of scalable opportunities, just 4% of that is being invested in climate solutions.
By including these smart, strategic reforms in the Pension Schemes Bill, we can mobilise a staggering £1.2 trillion to tackle the climate emergency.
We ask you to:
- Require pension funds to adopt science-based transition plans that recognise fossil fuel expansion is not compatible with meeting the 1.5° limit. The International Energy Agency has made clear that developing new long-term fossil fuel projects is unnecessary for global energy security and the single greatest threat to maintaining a safe climate. A science-based approach therefore means no pension investment in entities expanding oil, gas or coal. The same applies to the banking and insurance industries which, to protect public safety, must no longer finance or underwrite the most dangerous activities on Earth.
- Clarify that pension trustees must take climate and nature risks into account as part of their fiduciary duty to act in the best interests of their members. In the past, funds that exclude highly polluting industries like oil, gas and coal have been considered low return. This is a market failure that ignores the risks an unstable climate and polluted natural world pose to our longer term financial stability and pension returns.
- Pledge more public finance for green growth and support pension funds to drive private green investment in the UK. Where the government leads, the private sector will follow. An economy-wide just transition strategy, with sector-by-sector plans for public investment, can help 'crowd in' long-term investment from private pension funds. A range of measures exist to help scale up the supply of climate solutions that would be attractive to long-term investors. These include: expanding green funds and bonds, as well as institutions like the UK Infrastructure Bank, National Wealth Fund and GB Energy; promoting risk-sharing mechanisms between investors and government (central and local); and developing initiatives that accelerate the take-up of new technologies and the aggregation of fragmented opportunities.
We are hugely excited that Equity is moving its pension fund away from fossil fuel companies, because it creates an opportunity for our money to build the future we want to see: communities powered by clean energy, with less pollution and lower bills.
Following the promising changes Labour has already made - proposing an end to dangerous oil and gas licenses, reviving onshore wind, while developing the National Wealth Fund and GB Energy - we encourage you to boost support for building Britain's clean energy infrastructure, which will create green jobs and sustainably grow our economy.
You have an opportunity to develop a pension system fit for the challenges of our generation and generations to follow: one that moves our savings out of the destructive, unstable industries of the past, and into the cleaner, greener solutions of the future.
Please see here for expert recommendations on supercharging public finance for safer, greener communities. Please see here and here for proposals on private pensions sector reform that would support more clean investment in the UK.
We would be delighted to discuss this further with your office. Please kindly direct your response to Tom Peters at Equity (tpeters@equity.org.uk) and Tony Burdon at Make My Money Matter (tony@makemymoneymatter.co.uk).
Yours sincerely,
Will Attenborough, Actor and Climate Finance Campaigner
Leila Mimmack, Actor and Campaigner
Benedict Cumberbatch, Actor
Olivia Colman, Actor
Mark Rylance, Actor
Stephen Fry, Actor, Writer etc.
Jodie Whittaker, Actor
Alex Lawther, Actor, Filmmaker
Paapa Essiedu, Actor
Ritu Arya, Actor
Tom Burke, Actor
Nabhaan Rizwan, Actor
Freddie Fox, Actor, Director
Bessie Carter, Actor, Director
Jo Vanderham, Actor, Writer
Danusia Samal, Actor, Writer, Campaigner
Fehinti Balogun, Actor, Writer, Campaigner
Charity Wakefield, Actor
Joshua Sasse, Actor
Zoe Brough, Actor
Ruby Thomas, Writer, Actor
Eleanor Sutton, Actor
Alexandra Dowling, Actor
David Oakes, Actor
Helena Wilson, Actor and Campaigner
Enyi Okoronkwo, Actor
Ishtar Currie-Wilson, Actor
Blue Merrick, Actor and Stage Manager
Lisa Coleman, Actor and Writer
Sharon Eckman, Actor
Laila Alj, Actor and Producer
Lorraine Finch, Supporting Artist
Leonor Lemée, Actor
Grace Felton, Actor
Alan Turkington, Actor
Giovanni Bienne, Actor
Nana St Bartholomew-Brown, Actor, Campaigner
Louise Barrett, Actor
Juliet Dante, Actor
Rosie Armstrong, Actor
Rebecca Yeo, Actor
Ian Harris, Actor
Charlotte Chiew, Actor
Sophie Trott, Actor, Writer
Thomas Frere, Actor/Director
Elaine Duncan, Actor
Edward Davis, Actor
Sam Swann, Actor
Ben Norris, Actor, Writer
Mary Elliott Nelson, Actor, Writer
Richard James, Actor, Writer
Sophie Brooke, Actor
Lizzie Cooper, Stage Manager, Councillor Equity UK
Chris Clarkson, Actor
Lindsey Coulson, Actor
Paul Valentine, Actor, Vice-Chair, Equity for a Green New Deal
Lynda Rooke, Actor, President Equity UK
Sean Biggerstaff, Actor, Councillor Equity UK
Anna Glendenning, Writer, Actor
Tonia Daley-Campbell Actor/ Director, Equity UK Councillor
Shenagh Govan, Actor, Equity UK Councillor
Marla King, Dance Artist, Equity UK Councillor
Fiona Whitelaw, Actor, Writer, Equity UK Councillor
Orla Hill, Actor
Jess Khan-Lee, Actor
Tommy Franzen, Choreographer/Dancer/Actor
Gemma Lawrence, Actor & Chair of Equity for a Green New Deal
Hywel Morgan, Actor & Equity SE Area Councillor
Keith Bartlett. Actor