PENSION savers in Worcestershire have been unwittingly bankrolling the rapid expansion of gas terminals in the United States, according to a recent investigation, writes Josephine Moulds and Simon Lock.
A total of 60 local government pension funds, including that of Worcestershire County Council’s. have invested a total of £8billion into the construction of gas ports all along the Gulf Coast, according to revelations by the Bureau of Investigative Journalism.
Over 7million school staff, civil servants and other public sector workers either save with, or receive their pension from local government pension schemes.
Baroness Hayman, a non-party political peer, told the Bureau: “Many UK pension funds are already reducing their exposure to fossil fuels, recognising the risks these investments pose.
“But with £3trillion held in UK pensions, and the climate and nature challenge growing, there is a clear opportunity to better protect savers from rising financial and environmental risks.”
UK savers in 12 local government pension schemes, including Worcestershire’s, have invested over £360million in Stonepeak funds that financed these plants, according to figures from council records and data provider Pitchbook.
Worcestershire Pension Fund said it invested through structures that meant ‘exposure to any single asset was indirect, limited and a very small component of a broader portfolio’.
It said to its knowledge the Stonepeak fund in question ‘published detailed annual reports and complied fully with statutory disclosure requirements’.
Stonepeak declined to comment on the record.
