Scott Ainslie, Lambeth Green Party Councillor, and Green MP Caroline Lucas call for Lambeth Council to follow the recent trend of divesting from fossil fuels and investing in more profitable renewable energy.
Caroline Lucas protesting against fracking in 2013. Photograph courtesy of the BBC.
Lambeth Green Party Councillor Scott Ainslie has called on Lambeth Council to sell its multi-million pound investments in fossil fuels and reinvest in safer, greener, alternatives. It comes as MP Caroline Lucas also called on the House of Commons to pull its pension fund money out of oil, gas and coal.
According to the latest figures, Lambeth Council has £24.5m invested in Oil and Gas, through its pension fund. Hundreds of institutions worldwide have already divested £31bn from such investments, as a way of tackling climate change.
The Bank of England governor Mark Carney warned last week of a ‘carbon bubble’, that coal, gas and oil investments were a financial risk, given that most fossil fuels can’t be burned. Renewable energy is generating significant returns for investors.
Lambeth Green Party councillor Scott Ainslie said: “Lambeth Council should be showing leadership and demonstrating a positive way forward. Councillors cannot move the borough in a greener direction without making sure its own house is in order. Shifting the Council’s pension funds to more sustainable sources will also clearly help in the global fight against climate change.”
Caroline Lucas MP said: “There’s a strong economic reason to divest. These pension funds might not be performing as well as they might appear, once you factor in the fact that the investment in fossil fuels could well be unrealisable if we take seriously the fact we need to be weaning ourselves off fossil fuels and stay below 2C warming.”