More than £30 million of Wiltshire’s pensions fund fossil fuels

The Wiltshire Pension Fund, which belongs to the Brunel Pension Partnership pool and covers Swindon and Wiltshire, has been found to invest at least £30.7 million into fossil fuel companies.

This places the county’s fossil fuel investments far above other areas of similar size such as the Avon Pension Fund (covering Bristol, North Somerset and South Gloucestershire) and Cornwall - who invest a third of what Wiltshire does.

The data shared by UK Divest shows that the £30.7 million from Wiltshire’s 2021/22 Pension Fund was invested in controversial fossil fuel sources such as fracking, extra heavy oil, coalbed methane, ultra deepwater, arctic and tar sands.

The UK Divest organisation, which analysed 91 per cent of Wiltshire’s £3.2 billion assets, is now calling on pension funds to stop investing in fossil fuels.

It comes as 'virtually all' oil and gas companies are looking to expand their operations, according to global campaign group Insure Our Future.

A group of grandmothers staged a protest outside a full Wiltshire Council meeting. (Image: Trevor Porter)

“Investments in dirty fossil fuels turn public sector savings into fossil fuel playthings, pumping billions of pounds through the pensions pipeline into climate-wrecking fossil fuels,” said Rob Noyes, a researcher at Platform who gathered this national data.

“Polluters are profiting at pensioners' expense. To catch up on climate, council's must stop using pensions to prop up this deadly industry,” he warned.

The Wiltshire Pension Fund, which is one of 86 funds that make up the local government pension scheme, is responsible for more than 80,000 pensions.

More than 170 Wiltshire employers are signed up, including Wiltshire Council, local colleges, and town and parish councils.

Data from Freedom of Information requests showed that Wiltshire Pension Fund invests far more in oil and gas than coal. (Image: Divest UK)The local councils investing the most in fossil fuels from pension funds. (Image: Divest UK)

When you add this up with other pension funds on a national scale, a shocking £16 billion of local government pensions are fuelling the climate crisis.

Greater Manchester was found to be the worst contributor to this.

The total value of fossil fuel investments by local government pensions amounts to double the total market size of all renewable energy generation in the UK in 2022.

Wiltshire Council declared a climate emergency in 2019 and committed itself to becoming carbon neutral by 2030.

However, it is clear that not all Wiltshire residents have faith in this commitment, as earlier this month a group of grandmothers calling for action on climate change targets staged a protest outside a full Wiltshire Council meeting.

The council have been contacted for comment on this latest data revelation, but are yet to respond.