Approximately £16bn of the Local Government Pension Scheme (LGPS) is invested in the fossil fuel industry, according to analysis by Platform and Friends of the Earth.

Rather than reducing this, local councils are still funding fossil fuel expansion, with over £8bn of pensions invested in companies developing new oil and gas projects. These investments are turning “public savings into fossil fuel playthings,” say environmental campaigners.

The research, conducted through Freedom of Information requests, reveals a variance in approach to fossil fuel investment across UK local government pensions. In London, where sustained action on fossil fuel divestment has taken place, investment by local government pension funds is nearly half the national average, and over 50 percent of LGPS fossil fuel investments in held by only 10 per cent of funds, with Greater Manchester Pension Fund & West Yorkshire Pension Fund each investing over £1bn.

By contrast over 20 per cent of local councils now invest less than 1 per cent of their fund into fossil fuels, a ten-fold increase since 2020, the last time analysis was conducted.

---