WHAT ON
EARTH FRIENDS OF THE EARTH SCOTLAND’S MEMBERS’ MAGAZINE
Issue 84 I Summer 2021
Friends of the Earth International turns
5 !
WHAT ON
H T R A E T L A N D’S RT H S C O F T H E E A GA Z IN E O S D N F R IE S’ MA MEMBER 021
Summer 2 Issue 84 I
Photo: Robert Perry
Friends of the Earth Scotland is: > Scotland’s leading environmental campaigning organisation > An independent Scottish charity with a network of thousands of supporters and active local groups across Scotland > Part of the largest grassroots environmental network in the world, uniting over 2 million supporters, 73 national member groups and 5,000 local activist groups
Our vision is of a world where everyone can enjoy a healthy environment and a fair share of the earth’s resources. Friends of the Earth Scotland is an independent Scottish charity SC003442 What on Earth is published by and copyright to: Friends of the Earth Scotland 5 Rose Street, Edinburgh EH2 2PR T: 0131 243 2700 E: info@foe.scot W: www.foe.scot
Photo: FOEI
C O N T E N TS Get involved in the UN climate talks
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Why we must stop new fossil fuel plans
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Oil workers face training chaos
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FoE International 50th anniversary
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Clean air zones finally arrive
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Editors: Connal Hughes & Eilidh Stanners Design: Emma Quinn The views expressed in What on Earth are not necessarily those of Friends of the Earth Scotland. FoES accepts no liability for errors, omissions or incorrect data in advertisements. If you would prefer to receive a digital version of What on Earth please contact us: info@foe.scot Printed on 100% FSC Silk
Get social with us: /foescotland /foescot /foescot
WHAT ON EARTH SUMMER 2021
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Director’s view Dr Richard Dixon, Director @Richard_Dixon Here at Friends of the Earth we are into the serious run up to the UN climate talks COP26 in Glasgow in November, even though we don’t know what they will end up being like. We’re working with FoE groups in the rest of the UK, in Europe and internationally to make sure anyone from a FoE group who comes to Glasgow has a safe and hopefully enjoyable time. However, COVID and the UK immigration system mean it’s not clear how many people will actually be able to be in Glasgow during COP26. Even our own official international FoE delegation may be present inside the negotiations in reduced numbers. We’re planning big but know the reality might be small. Part of the run up to the talks is putting pressure on the UK and Scottish Governments over their claims to be climate leaders while still supporting yet more oil and gas extraction, currently exemplified by the proposed massive Cambo field development to the north-west of Shetland. The UK is certainly not looking like it is leaving fossil fuels behind any time soon, but the coming of the COP is our biggest opportunity yet to force a change of heart. This issue of What on Earth also celebrates the 50th anniversary of Friends of Earth as an international network. From our origins in the US, through early groups in the UK and France, Friends of the Earth International is now the world’s largest grassroots environmental network, with member groups in 73 countries. I was at the virtual general meeting of FoE International last month, hearing about some of the amazing work covered in these pages, as well as voting into our network new groups from Albania, Ecuador and India. Here’s to another half century of working together to champion climate justice.
Here’s to another half century of working together to champion climate justice.
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Get active at the UN climate conference Get involved at COP26 Save the dates: Fri 5 & Sat 6 November:
With the UN Climate Summit – COP26 – due to take place in Glasgow in only four months, plans for big civil society mobilisations and the alternative Peoples’ Summit are well underway.
Whilst there's still some uncertainty around the format of the talks and ongoing COVID-19 restrictions, we are factoring the public health situation into all activities, and planning for hybrid virtual and in-person events, alongside decentralised mobilisations.
Sun 7 – Wed 10 November : Hybrid in-person and virtual Peoples’ Summit with events and workshops organised by local, national and global civil society. Most people won't be able to get into the conference itself – this will be a place to learn more about climate justice, the issues at the heart of the negotiations, and real solutions to the climate emergency. Keep an eye on our website and social media for more details over the coming weeks. Photo: istockphoto.com
The FoES team is working with allies in Stop Climate Chaos Scotland (SCCS) and the COP26 Coalition to ensure we have the biggest possible impact with our campaigns and on the negotiations. Through organising around the talks, we aim to grow and strengthen the climate justice movement for the struggle that will continue long after the negotiations leave town.
A global call to action for climate justice with a major mobilisation in Glasgow, decentralised mobilisations across the UK and in cities around the world. Take part either by coming to Glasgow or joining a local event in your area to show the strength of the climate justice movement.
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Get involved now: Join a local hub Want to get involved with organising actions, mobilisations and assemblies in your area? Join a COP26 Coalition local organising hub now. Connect with one of the 18 hubs already established across the UK, or set up a new one in your area at: www.cop26coalition.org/resource/local-hub-assemblies/
Be a volunteer SCCS and the COP26 Coalition are looking for volunteers to help deliver activities during the UN summit between 31st Oct – 14th Nov 2021. Volunteers will ideally be based in Glasgow over this period, and you don't need any particular experience or specialist skills for most roles. There are a number of roles and shifts available, and training and support will be provided. Find out more: www.climatefringe.org/cop26-volunteering/
Host a visitor If you live in Glasgow or the central belt you can sign up to the COP26 Homestay Network to offer space in your home for visitors from the climate justice movement during the talks. Opening your home (and your heart) to activists, scientists, and policy makers from around the world is one of the most impactful ways you can contribute to the movement. Find out more and register as a host at: www.humanhotel.com/cop26/
Sign up for events The months ahead of COP26 will be extremely busy with events held by all kinds of civil society groups organising around the summit. SCCS has set up the Climate Fringe website to help you keep a track of what is happening and where. Plenty of events will be online only so they should be accessible no matter where you live. Visit it now and bookmark it to keep up to date: www.climatefringe.org Photo: COP26 Homestay Network
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Leave fossil fuels in the ground By Caroline Rance, Climate & Energy Campaigner When world leaders gather in Glasgow for the UN climate conference this November, it will mark six years since they adopted the historic Paris Agreement with its goal to limit global warming to 1.5ºC. Since then, both the UK and Scottish governments have set new climate targets and have ramped up the rhetoric about taking climate action, but emissions from burning oil and gas have only fallen by 3% since 1990, and both governments want to keep drilling for every last drop of oil and gas from the North Sea. We’re working to change that.
Fossil fuels are the key driver of the climate crisis, and in May this year the International Energy Agency (IEA) said that if we’re to meet that Paris Agreement goal there should be no new coal, oil or gas developments anywhere in the world.
Just weeks after the IEA warning, oil giant Shell and Siccar Point Energy submitted an application to open the huge new Cambo oil field off the west coast of Shetland. The companies want to begin by extracting 170 million barrels of oil, equivalent to running 18 coal power stations for a year, and plan to keep drilling until 2050. We can’t let this go ahead. We’ve been working with organisations across the UK to put pressure on the government to stop Cambo. Thanks to each of you who added your name to the open letter to the Prime Minister, it really does make a difference.
Stop Cambo Rally in Edinburgh. Photo: Jessica Kleczka
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WHAT ON EARTH SUMMER 2021
Instead of fighting every new application as they come, we need to change the law and ban all new oil and gas drilling in the North Sea
Stop Cambo Rally in Edinburgh. Photo: Jessica Kleczka
No new oil and gas Saying no to Cambo is just the beginning. Instead of fighting every new application as they come, we need to change the law and ban all new oil and gas drilling in the North Sea. Around the world, other countries are already doing just that. Belize, Costa Rica, Denmark, France, Spain, New Zealand and Portugal have all banned new offshore oil and gas production. Scotland and the UK must follow suit. As well as saying no to new oil and gas drilling, we need a plan to wind down production of North Sea oil and gas over the next decade. This must go hand in hand with increasing renewable energy and ensuring a just transition for workers and communities by supporting retraining and providing new jobs.
A court case brought by Friends of the Earth Netherlands and over 17,000 Dutch citizens saw oil giant Shell ordered to cut emissions by 45% by 2030 (more info on p14). People are taking polluters to court here in the UK too. The Paid to Pollute campaign is taking the UK Government to court over their unfair handouts for oil and gas, and we are endorsing the legal challenge. Since signing the Paris Agreement in 2016, the UK Government has paid £3.2bn of public money to North Sea oil and gas companies, while the companies paid next to nothing in tax. It’s time to end the handouts for fossil fuel companies and invest in the energy transition. In the coming months we will be scaling up action to stop climate pollution at source and shining a spotlight on the fundamental incompatibility of climate action and extracting more fossil fuels. We’ll need your help to put pressure on polluters and the politicians who allow them to keep on drilling and destroying our climate.
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Oil workers blocked from transition by training chaos By Ryan Morrison, Just Transition Campaigner As climate change impacts intensify across the globe, there is an increasing focus on the urgent need to bring the extraction of oil and gas to an end. In Scotland, an estimated 20,000 people work directly in the extraction of fossil fuels offshore and many communities around the North East of Scotland rely on the industry today.
Photo: istockphoto.com
A just transition is vital, winding down the extraction of fossil fuels while ensuring the people who work in the industry and surrounding communities who depend upon it, are not left behind.
Scotland is uniquely placed for this transition, with vast untapped potential for renewable energy and a workforce with the skills and experience to unleash it. Yet our Offshore report published last year found that these workers were struggling to move out of the industry despite a huge appetite to make the shift into renewable energy. Of nearly 1,400 workers surveyed, 81% were open to moving out of oil and gas. However, through the survey and in several follow up conversations, workers told us that they face a convoluted and expensive training regime before they could even be considered for a job in other areas of the energy sector.
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Offshore workers tell us about training issues To find out more, we created a second survey with Platform and Greenpeace UK to hear from offshore workers specifically on the issue of training, including the costs, frequency and changes since the oil price downturn in 2015. In total, we heard from 610 workers who shared their experiences, revealing that 97% of them were concerned about the extensive costs of training for their work. People working in the energy industry undertake comprehensive and regular training to learn and improve the skills needed for their jobs. Paying for this training is often the responsibility of the person, rather than any potential employer, and training costs can quickly add up. Our survey found that the average offshore worker is paying £1,800 a year to maintain their training qualifications. Since 2015, the number of offshore companies failing to contribute to these employee costs has risen from 45% to 65%. There is no one standard for work in the different areas of the energy sector and this can often mean duplication of training is the only option for those who would like to
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change industries. For instance, to work in oil, your training courses include learning how to survive at sea and how to work at extreme heights. If you wanted to work in offshore wind, you would complete separate training qualifications, which also include how to survive at sea and working at height. For those interested in moving out of fossil fuels, having the option to work in another sector means deciding to pay huge costs to duplicate their training to work in another sector, despite very significant overlaps in those qualifications. Worse still, many workers are being asked to repeat a training course to gain a qualification which they already hold. 62% have been required to pay for a new qualification when their current training is up to date in order to take on work with a new company, while 44% have been forced to do the same by the company they currently work for just to agree to a new contract.
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PAGE 10 Photo: istockphoto.com
An overwhelming 94% of offshore workers said they supported the ‘Offshore Passport’.
An ‘Offshore Passport’ to enable workers to move into renewable energy As we wind down extraction of fossil fuels, our survey has shown that workers are open to moving into renewable energy. Yet right now, this is a more difficult option that would involve repeating their existing qualifications. To solve this, our survey asked whether workers would support an ‘Offshore Training Passport’, to create a new standardised training programme across the energy industry. This would reduce costs for workers and remove the duplication needed to move across from fossil fuels to wind or other renewables. An overwhelming 94% of offshore workers said they supported the ‘Offshore Passport’. Thanks to their enthusiasm and alongside Platform and Greenpeace UK as well as the offshore trade unions RMT and Unite Scotland, we are now calling for the Scottish and UK Government to make these changes. It would recognise the hugely transferable skills of workers in the fossil fuel industry and ensure the choice to move into renewable energy isn’t a more expensive option.
A transition for people and planet Our transition away from fossil fuels to renewable energy must happen at a rapid pace over the next decade. The climate crisis, driven by the wealthiest countries and companies across the world, is hitting the most vulnerable through extreme weather events already. That shift to renewables will require the skills and experience of people who have worked in the energy sector for years already. A just transition, ensuring that those workers and their local communities are able to move into and benefit from new, green industries is essential. The training issues shared by people in the offshore sector in our survey show that we are not yet ready to make that happen. The onus is now on the Scottish and UK Governments to create a training regime which recognises the wide-ranging skills of offshore workers and enables them to bring them into a growing renewable industry.
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Friends of the Earth International turns
50!
By Eilidh Stanners, Communications Officer
Friends of the Earth is celebrating its long history this month, having just hit the milestone anniversary of 50 years since it was founded. The international group was started in 1971, and it was originally made up of four organisations in the USA, England, France and Sweden. From there it grew with annual meetings of environmentalists from around the world campaigning on crucial issues. Friends of the Earth Scotland formed not long after the founding member organisations in 1978, when there were already some Friends of the Earth local groups taking action across the country. The first was Friends of the Earth Edinburgh group, which was set up in 1972 and is still going strong today. There are now 73 Friends of the Earth member groups which are campaigning internationally, nationally and locally to protect the environment and create sustainable societies, with millions of supporters around the world.
We’ve shared some common fights, and have also had more localised successes over half a century – but we are always inspired by each other’s work and drive to keep trying to make positive change. Action is the best antidote to feeling despair at the environmental and social crises we face, and the achievements we see happening show that people power really does lead to change. In celebration of 50 years, here are a few victories from around the world. Photos opposite: Top left FoEI meeting, Swaziland 2007 Top right FoE South Africa at Durban climate talks 2011, by Luka Tomac /FoEI Middle right: Human flood at Copenhagen climate talks in 2009, by Christoffer Askman / FoEI Bottom left FoE Brasil Bottom right Milieudefensie vs Shell court case 2012, by Pierre Crom
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we are always inspired by each other’s work and drive to keep trying to make positive change
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Friends of the Earth International turns
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50!
Climate change catches up with the oil industry In June, a Dutch court ruled that Shell needs to plan to drastically reduce the climate emissions it is responsible for. The court said that Shell’s plans to keep on pumping oil were incompatible with the action needed to tackle climate change. The case was led by our Dutch sister organisation Milieudefensie/ FoE Netherlands along with 17,000 Dutch citizens as co-plaintiffs and six other organisations, and it was three years of hard work that resulted in this monumental outcome. Milieudefensie argued that Shell is violating its duty of care and threatening human rights by knowingly undermining the world’s chances of staying below 1.5C of warming. The judgment requires Shell to reduce its carbon dioxide emissions by 45% within 10 years, starting now. This means they will need to reduce emissions at about the same pace as Scotland’s national targets require.
Photo: Bart Hoogveld Milieudefensie
For decades, millions of people living in the Niger Delta have been suffering the consequences of large-scale oil pollution. Every year, 16,000 babies die as a result of the pollution, and life expectancy in the Delta is 10 years below that in the rest of Nigeria.
Crucially it is not just Shell’s direct emissions that must be reduced but the emissions resulting from their customers’ use of their oil and gas products.
Milieudefensie’s lawsuit revolves around pollution from leaks of Shell oil in three villages, which has rendered local people’s fields and fish ponds unusable. They argued that the leaked oil was never thoroughly cleaned up and new oil is still leaking out regularly.
This is the first time ever that a company has been held liable for causing climate change anywhere in the world and could open the door to similar challenges around the world.
Shell Nigeria was found to be liable, and according to the court, the parent company Royal Dutch Shell also had a duty of care to make sure that a leak detection system was installed.
This wasn’t the first successful court ruling of the year for Milieudefensie. In January, The Court of Appeal in The Hague ruled in favour of Milieudefensie and four Nigerian farmers in an oil pollution case that was first brought against Shell in 2008.
Three of the four Nigerian plaintiffs and their fellow villagers will now be compensated for the damage caused and Shell must ensure that there is a leak detection system in the pipelines in Nigeria.
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Friends of the Earth International turns
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50!
Women leading Palestine’s energy transformation
Basma Giacaman, Director at the Al Basma Centre
Many people in Palestine live with extreme energy scarcity due to the Israeli occupation. The control of energy is one of the key environmental injustices they face, in addition to toxic waste-dumping, expropriation of water sources, and destruction of Palestinian lands under the guise of nature conservation is also commonplace. In Palestine, much of the energy is imported at high prices, putting a heavy economic burden on poor and marginalised communities which represent around half of the population. The supply is inadequate and unreliable, and many communities struggle with just a few hours of power per day. This energy scarcity is felt most keenly by rural women who bear the double burden of domestic and agricultural work. In 2003, Friends of the Earth Palestine/Palestinian Environmental NGOs Network (PENGON) began introducing renewable energy projects to help local people, especially women, to manage their own clean energy sources.
The projects provide households, small farms, businesses and non-profit institutions like schools with reliable, affordable and sustainable electricity for their basic needs. It is used for things like lights, machinery and water pumps. This training and support puts power back into the hands of Palestinian women. These real solutions for clean energy are having a huge impact on peoples’ lives in Palestine, and are tackling social and climate injustice from the grassroots up, with women taking the lead. PENGON is also lobbying to transform energy policy so clean energy is prioritised across the country. Its impact is bolstered by relationships with local authorities and development councils. Women and their communities are now leading Palestine’s clean energy transformation.
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50!
Defending indigenous people’s rights in Malaysia In Malaysia, indigenous communities have been resisting land grabbing with territorial mapping, community action and legal support from Friends of the Earth Malaysia/Sahabat Alam Malaysia (SAM). The indigenous communities of Sarawak have lived in harmony with nature for centuries. It’s an extremely bio-diverse area, covered in tropical forests and mangrove. Since the 1990s, more than three million hectares of land - over a quarter of Sarawak’s land area – have been designated for monoculture plantations for oil palm, pulp and paper, and timber. Unlike forests, plantations are green deserts, with hugely negative impacts on plants, wildlife, soil and climate cycles, as well as local communities. When companies grab forested land to replace it with monoculture plantations, they also rob indigenous people of their livelihoods and their ancestral, cultural and spiritual belonging. SAM has been supporting the communities affected by this to defend their rights for over two decades. The team has worked to draw maps of indigenous domains, which are crucial in the struggle for land rights. They use GPS to track coordinates on the ground, then plot these on maps from the land registry back in the office. These maps can be used in court or sent
Community Forest Management in Malaysia. Photo: Amelia Collins/FoEI
to state authorities or companies, allowing communities to define their rights within a legal framework. Using the territorial maps, they have successfully forced companies to agree not to encroach upon their land or conduct any land survey activities. They have also blocked plans for access roads going through their territories by building and occupying blockades. By building a solidarity network of groups across the region, they have been able to pressure the government to be more open and transparent, and block extractive projects, such as dams and plantations.
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50!
El Salvador became the first country to ban metal mining Photo: UpsideDownWorld
In 2017, El Salvador made history by becoming the first country ever to ban metal mining. The success came after decades of campaigning and was hard-fought by mining giants. El Salvador went through rapid industrialisation which led to mining causing contamination of rivers and surface water, poisoning people and destroying farm lands. Mining was sold to the Salvadoran people as an industry that would aid development, create jobs and taxes to pay for schools and hospitals. The government developed a range of mining friendly policies and allowed multinational corporations to scale up their operations in the country. El Salvador is a small and densely populated country, but by 2012 the government had 22 requests for gold exploration, allowing gold mines to exploit 4.23% of the land. Local communities, with groups including CESTA (Friends of the Earth El Salvador), resisted through protests, court cases, meetings and land
occupation. A number of communities marched across the country to the presidential palace to demand their rights. In 2008 the president, Antonio Saca rejected the significant Pacific Rim mining project. The project would have led to the use of toxic chemicals including cyanide within 65km of the capital. Pacific Rim then sued the government of El Salvador US$301m on the basis that their profits were negatively affected by the rejection of their mining application, but the corporate bullying backfired. The case garnered widespread outrage, which was a turning point in public opinion among those who had previously been defending the industry and helped to push for decisive action. Finally after years of campaigning, in 2017 a vote went to parliament for a total ban on metal mining to protect the country’s people and environment, and was passed almost unanimously.
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Clean air zones arrive at last
By Gavin Thomson, Air Pollution Campaigner
We are finally beginning to see the Low Emission Zones being introduced in Glasgow, Edinburgh, Dundee and Aberdeen that were announced by the Scottish Government in 2016. There is still a significant wait until any vehicles will actually be restricted in any of these cities. The Low Emission Zone in Glasgow is the furthest along, where the oldest vehicles will be restricted from the city centre from June 2023, with the other three following along a year later.
The introduction of the Low Emission Zones is a step in the right direction. We know that they are one of the most effective ways of reducing air pollution, and there have been 14 years of consistently illegal levels across all four of these cities, with only a short reduction in the first lockdown last year when traffic levels briefly plummeted. Air pollution is estimated to cause over 2,500 early deaths in Scotland each year. It has been linked to wide reaching health implications, including cancer, heart failure, asthma, cognitive impairments, and miscarriage.
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Air pollution is estimated to cause over 2,500 early deaths in Scotland each year. Now we’ve seen the plans from each of the councils that show what the Low Emission Zones will look like in practice, it’s clear that these are only a small element of what will need to be a much bigger plan if we are really going to tackle the issue. The zones will introduce the following emission standards for vehicles: Euro 4 for petrol vehicles (generally vehicles registered from 2006) Euro 6 for diesel vehicles (generally vehicles registered from September 2015). In other words, if a 2003 petrol car is driven into one of the four city centres after June 2024, a penalty fine will be issued. The zones will only cover very small areas in the four city centres, with heavily polluted neighbourhoods being left out. In Edinburgh, for example, the council scaled back the plan for a city wide zone leaving only a small area of the city centre which is mostly in the historic Old Town. This means that the benefits of cleaner air will only be felt by tourists coming to the city and the generally wealthier residents who live in this area. The rest of the city will be left to be exposed to toxic air that’s harmful to our health.
Climate targets Scotland’s climate emission stats for the year 2019 were published in mid June (there is a lag in reporting due to the complexity of calculations). This made for grim reading. Scotland failed to meet its legally set climate change target for the third year in a row. The transport sector remains by far the biggest contributor. Taking action on climate, in Scotland, means taking action on transport. What these statistics on greenhouse gas emissions showed was that there’d been no action taken. In addition to the devastating impact on our health from traffic emissions, the lack of action to change our transport system is also failing the climate. Traffic levels have been as high, or higher, than pre-pandemic levels for quite some time now. There are few signs that the emissions from transport for 2021 will show a reduction. We’re going in the wrong direction.
Photo: Thomas Nugent / CC-BY-SA 2.0
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Photo: iStockphoto.com
Photo: Rachel Martin
What now? Low Emission Zones are a great way of improving air quality in our city centres but if we want to improve air quality for everyone, we need to see a variety of measures.
an added bonus, will make cities a nicer place to live and spend time, while helping to make the changes we need for our health and that of the planet.
We need bus services that are affordable and reliable. We want councils and communities to have greater control over how, when, and where bus services operate. This means greater regulation of buses.
The Scottish Government recently committed to reducing car use by 20%. The plan to achieve this will be published later this year. We don’t know if any or all of these ideas mentioned above will be included. One thing we know: it will need to be ambitious.
Planning approval for things like out-of-town retail parks and drive-thru coffee shops have to become a thing of the past. Pedestrianisation in city centres, removal of parking spaces in favour of benches and green space, are some of the changes that send a clear message that cities are for people rather than for cars. They also, as
Get in touch If you’re trying to reduce traffic levels in your area or if you’d like to start, give me a shout at gthomson@foe.scot.
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Activists in Stirling with anti-coal campaigners from Colombia. Photo: Ric Lander
Divestment News Roundup In the last edition of What on Earth, we reported on how Scotland’s councils still invested over £1.2 billion in fossil fuel companies – despite many of these councils having declared a ‘climate emergency’. The globally influential International Energy Agency’s recent report stated “There is no need for investment in new fossil fuel supply in our net zero pathway.” The excuses for inaction are falling away fast.
Fife Council also backed a first step towards divestment, a change that would see the Council breaking ties with Shell, owner of the area’s biggest polluter at Mossmorran. Renewed campaigning is also getting started in Highland and Lothian areas. Could our councils be in a race to divest ahead of the UN climate talks? Others have crossed the line already: Edinburgh Napier have just announced they’re fully fossil free, making them the 88th UK university to make this commitment.
The good news is that thanks to your activism across the country, Councillors are speaking out against these investments and leading some major changes. For the first time both Falkirk and Stirling Councils have written to their shared pension fund requesting an end to investment in fossil fuels.
The excuses for inaction are falling away fast.
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And five years since the issue was first raised by their Youth Assembly, Church of Scotland members finally approved the Church divesting from fossil fuels. Sally Foster-Fulton of Christian Aid reacted: ‘Communities living with the devastating consequences of climate chaos have been consistently calling on us all to make the significant changes necessary to bring climate justice. Investing our money and our energy in renewable and sustainable resources is one practical way to respond.’ Earlier in the spring campaigners in Scotland were also instrumental in securing a commitment from the UK Methodist Church.
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We’re investigating fossil fuel connections in new places. If you’re a member of one of these pension funds and would support efforts to divest, email sclark@foe.scot > Highland and Lothian pension funds > BT > RBS and other high street banks > Electricity Pensions > Railways Pension Scheme > Universities Superannuation Scheme
Glasgow could make history in September By Ric Lander & Sally Clark, Divestment Campaigners Glasgow Councillors could make the UK’s biggest divestment commitment yet at a crunch meeting in September. Here’s how campaigning got us this far, and what’s left to do.
It’s just months to go now until Glasgow hosts the United Nations climate talks, and the clock is ticking on whether the city can pull off one of the UK’s biggest ever wins for climate justice. Glasgow Council runs the Strathclyde Pension Fund which, at £24 billion pounds, is one of Europe’s largest pension funds and Scotland’s biggest pot of public money. Despite the Council declaring a climate emergency in 2019 this fund still invests heavily in climate polluters: over £500 million according to our 2021 report.
Yet change may come soon. After fossil fuel divestment was proposed as part of the City’s climate emergency response, Glasgow City Councillors overwhelmingly backed fossil fuel divestment in April. Proposed by Greens and with backing from the SNP and Labour, the motion was non-binding, but nonetheless a milestone political win for fossil free campaigning. Fast forward to June, and having received the call for action, it was now the job of Councillors on the City’s independent Pension Committee to decide what to do.
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Photo: Colin Hattersley
They took a step in the right direction but stopped short of divesting the pension fund. Their motion supported some divestment taking place but didn’t mention fossil fuel companies and didn’t set a timeline. They agreed the Fund would divest from any companies which did not meet minimum climate standards but did not agree what these standards should be. If something meaningful is to be done by COP26 a final decision must now be made at a crucial Pension Fund Committee meeting in September. The risk in Glasgow is that if minimum standards are too weak, the £24 billion fund may continue to invest in polluters simply because these companies make vague 2050 pledges whilst continuing to explore and develop more polluting fuels. Campaigners in Glasgow and Strathclyde are busy piling on the pressure to ensure this goes the right way. Hundreds of you signed an open
letter supporting divestment, protests have taken place with Divest Strathclyde and Extinction Rebellion Glasgow, there have been press stories and online events, and plans are afoot to link with global campaigners in the run up to COP26. The impact of a strong fossil fuel divestment policy being announced in the host city just weeks before the conference would wave a huge flag that polluters are not welcome in Glasgow. At the same time, a win here could unlock millions to invest in a sustainable future. The Cardiff, Lambeth and Waltham Forest council pension funds have already fully committed to going fossil fuel free. Scotland can join them, and if it does, others will surely follow. We’re urging councillors to agree strong fossil free divestment policy to ensure that Glasgow makes history this September.
Ahead of the Strathclyde Pension Fund Committee’s next meeting in September, we need your help to keep up the pressure to ensure that the Fund makes the right choices for people and the planet and stops investing in fossil fuel companies. If you want to help, get in touch rlander@foe.scot
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