Norfolk Pension Fund • Divestment

XR King’s Lynn & West Norfolk calls for the Norfolk Pension Fund to divest from fossil fuel investments.

Norfolk Pension Fund manages retirement savings for workers from more than 400 organisations including public service workers across Norfolk. There are around 100,000 members part of this pension scheme. The fund has £118million invested in fossil fuel companies. It’s clearly madness to invest in companies that are putting the future at such risk by continuing to expand and use fossil fuels.

The fund has previously been criticised for investing in fracking and more recently investments linked to Russia following Putin’s invasion of Ukraine. 

Why Divest? 

Long-term studies have shown that pension funds who divest from fossil fuels match or even outperform those who don’t. It doesn’t make financial sense to invest in fossil fuels for the future. During the pandemic, local government pension schemes like NPF collectively lost £2billion by not cutting ties from oil and gas. 

Unison, the public service union, supports pension fund divestment. The union has a representative on the NPF committee. Unite the Union and GMB have also supported divestment. Ask your union reps about it.

One of the world’s largest pensions announced they are divesting because they have not been able to push companies towards decarbonising fast enough to meet climate goals. 

The UK Parliament Work and Pensions Committee declared in their 2021 report that pensions “should make an impact in reducing the real economy’s contribution to climate change. Investment in a sustainable future has never been more urgent.” 

So, What do I do?

Norfolk Pension Fund Members:

If you have a pension with the fund, you have more influence and you can help put even more pressure on them to divest.

  1. Write to the NPF committee as a member and tell them why you think they should divest. Use our template tool here.
  2. Talk to your union rep and colleagues about this. We need to build pressure by growing support for divestment.  
  3. Join us! We always need more hands on deck to run this campaign, together we can win!

Everyone else:

We still have power to make change if we work together. 

  1. Sign this petition to tell the committee that local people support cutting ties with these harmful companies. 
  2. Join us! We always need more hands on deck to run this campaign, together we can win! 
  3. Talk to people about this. Your friends, family, neighbours, anyone you can and tell them why this is important. With 100,000 members, you probably know a few people who are part of the NPF, so send them this page and get them involved.

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