Write to the pension fund

Ask your pension fund to stop investing in fossil fuels

If you are a member of the West Midlands Local Government Pension Fund (LGPS), you can write to them in support of our campaign.   Contact them here. Please let us know that you are writing to them and if you get any response.

Key talking points:

You can find a sample email below, but if you’re able to write your own please do as they’ll take individual letters more seriously.

• The West Midlands Pension Fund invests over £490 million in fossil fuels. While this is a lot of money altogether, it’s only 3.5% of each individual pension.
• Fossil fuel companies are key contributors to climate change, which will have a negative impact on our futures. 
• Most fossil fuel reserves are unburnable if we are to keep global warming below 2 degrees C
• Fossil fuel investments are also financially risky, as action on climate change means that their assets are not longer usable leading to ‘stranded assets’
• The pension fund should follow the example of over 1000 other organisations and divest from fossil fuels.

A sample email

Dear Pension Fund Committee,

I am writing to express my concern that part of my pension is being invested in fossil fuel companies. I would like to ask the pension fund to follow the example of over 1000 other organisations and stop investing in fossil fuels. It is not ethical to invest in fossil fuels when we can see the impacts that climate change is having on the natural world and human lives, including floods, wildfires, droughts and heatwaves. We know that most of the known fossil fuel reserves cannot be burned if we want to keep warming below 2 degrees C to avoid the worst impacts of climate change. Where possible, I would like to see this money invested in creating local green jobs instead.

Kind Regards,
[Your name here]

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