The UK’s biggest pension fund, the government-backed National Employment Savings Trust (Nest) scheme with nine million members, is to begin divesting from fossil fuels in what climate campaigners have hailed as a landmark move for the industry. The fund will ban investments in any companies involved in coal mining, oil from tar sands and arctic drilling. But the move puts Nest – a public corporation of the Department for Work and Pensions – potentially at odds with the current pensions minister, Guy Opperman, who earlier this month condemned divestment as “ counter productive ”. UK government development bank to end fossil fuel financing Read more Nest, which handles much of the pensions of workers saving under the government’s “ auto enrolment ” scheme, will shift £5.5bn into “climate aware” investments as it anticipates a green economic recovery from coronavirus. The ban will mean that some of the world’s biggest mining companies, such as BHP, can never be part of Nest’s share holdings, as long they derive profits from digging coal. It said it will sell its final holdings in BHP by 3 August. Nest will also seek to reduce its carbon-intensive holdings, such as with the traditional oil giants, […]
Click here to view original web page at UK’s biggest pension fund begins fossil fuels divestment
