Derbyshire County Council has outsourced its pension fund and other local services in order to make the council appear greener and draw attention away from the MILLIONS of pounds of pension funds and life savings invested in environmentally harmful and financially unsound operations.
Many councils across the UK are committed to lowering their reliance on fossil fuels and making their operations greener. The emissions of council activities (such as the way they power their buildings, the amount of cars they have on the road or the environmental standards of the services it provides) are calculated and added up to produce a baseline. Councils then (hopefully) seek to improve upon its score by insulating its buildings, improving its waste management systems, removing fossil fuel reliant vehicles from its fleet and through other positive actions. Derbsyhire County Council is absolutely intent on lowering its score, not by doing any of these positive actions but instead by fudging the numbers.
In December 2019, Derbsyhire County Council produced a climate policy framework. On p.7 of the document (found here) they present an emissions reduction pathway. This table shows a steady reduction in emissions between 2010 and 2018 and then forecasts a huge drop by 2050. But why is the council using 2010 as its baseline not it's 1990 levels (like many other local councils and both the UK and Scottish governments are)? Well, that is because 2009 is when the Conservatives took control of Derbsyhire County Council and when they began their policy of outsourcing. They have found a way to outsource services in order to make it look like the council is producing less and less emissions. The emissions and environmental standards are not improving, the council is just getting someone else to do their job for them and therefore not including these services it in its own calculations. Who says this lot aren't geniuses. . . .
By outsourcing the management of Derbyshire pension funds, alongside most other local services, Derbsyhire County Council has been able to distort its invetsments in fossil fuels. The Derbsyhire Pension Fund has public money tied up in polluting and harmful fossil fuels companies which are not only environemntally immoral but also incredibly financially unsound.
A startling £10 BILLIION worth of investments in fossil fuels, including oil and gas companies such as BP and Shell, were found in local government pension funds in the last financial year across the UK (Guardian). This is despite the fact that these investments are continuing to lose vast sums of people's savings.
The Derbyshire Pension Fund has a total of £146,583,988 invested in coal, oil and gas which is well above the average for UK. The overall value of tax payer money invested in harmful fossil fuels by Derbyshire is the 16th highest in the country. (UKDIVEST)
The breakdown of the Derbyshire Pension Fund shows £48 million invested in Royal Dutch Shell, £29 million in BP, £15 million in BHP, £7 million in Anglo American and a further £6 million in Exxon Mobil. These are just the five top fossil fuel beneficiaries of Derbyshire pension fund investments, there are a host of other oil, gas and coal related companies on the long list. (UKDIVEST)
'Three companies alone – BP, Shell, and BHP – account for about 40% of all direct investments in fossil fuels by local council pension funds' (Guardian)
Derbyshire County Council pension fund has lost a huge £64,904,00 between 2017-2020 (source: DIVEST)
Oil giant Royal Dutch Shell reported losses of £16 BILLION last year after the coronavirus pandemic caused demand to slump (BBC). Two of Shell's main rivals BP and Exxon, whom are both heavily invested in by Derbsyhire Pension Fund, posted similar big losses (BBC). Fossil fuel companies are not only seeing big losses due to the pandemic but the finite nature of their business operations means that they are bound to be replaced. This coupled with strong emerging renewable markets signal the sign of the end for the fossil fuel industry. The savings and retirement pots of Derbsyhire residents are being unneccesarily risked in environmentally damaging and financially dubious investements.
Derbyshire County Council is putting on a climate friendly act in order to make itself appear environmentally responsible and climate concious. In fact, all they are doing is washing their hands of any and all responsiblity by outsourcing the council's duties to private companies. This not only removes public accountability and allows harmful activities to continue unchecked. The worst thing about it is that the council are knowlingly employing these environmentally devastating tactics in order to present themselves as climate friendly. The hypocrisy of it all is outrageous and the impacts on our climate are devestating.
This has to stop immediately and the only way it will is if the we, the electorate of Derbyshire, stand up on 6th May this year and vote for candidates who are prepared to protect both our environment and our investments. Derbyshire County Council must take responsibility for its actions and tackle the climate crisis head on. The council must fully divest from fossil fuels and other environmentally damaging sectors. They must also start calculating their emissions on 1990 baseline levels and stop their tactic of outsourcing rather than improving the services it provides. I am determined to stop this disgrace from continuing and I hope that you will join me.
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