Climate Action and Carbon Reduction Plan 2024 - 2027

Introduction

Climate change

International, regional, and local context

Hyper-local context: mapping our emissions

What we are doing

Appendix one

Appendix two

Worcestershire Pension Fund is worth at least £3.58 billion, at least £196.5 million of which is invested directly into fossil fuel related projects. The vast majority of this amount is invested in oil, with the rest invested in coal. This investment constitutes at least 5.5% of the entire Worcestershire Pension Fund. This is the joint sixth highest proportion of total funds invested in fossil fuels of all 86 LGPS pension funds in the UK, behind only Barking and Dagenham (18.6%), Croydon (5.8%), East Riding of Yorkshire (6.2%), Greater Manchester (6%), and Merton (10.7%). The total financed scope 1, 2, and 3 emissions of the Worcestershire Pension Fund, as reported by the fund themselves, was 1,921,978 tCO2e for the year 2022. However, Wyre Forest District Council is not the sole contributor to this fund. In total, there are 190 contributors, including Herefordshire Council, Worcestershire County Council, and the five other district councils of Worcestershire. The contributions of Wyre Forest District Council constituted 2.38% of all contributions received in the three financial years April 2020 – March 2023. Therefore, proportionally speaking, Wyre Forest District Council can be said to account for approximately 45,743.22 tCO2e of the fund’s total emissions for the year 2023 (the most recent full year for which data is available).

At least £110 million worth of the Worcestershire Pension Fund’s investments in fossil fuels are managed by Legal and General, with a further £32.2 million managed by LGPS Central, and another £4.7 million managed by Nomura Asset Management. This £196.5 million of fossil fuel investments also includes investments in unconventional fossil fuel sources including fracking, extra heavy oil, coalbed methane, ultra-deep water, Arctic oil, and tar sands.

A map of the world with countries in which the Worcestershire Pension Fund is financing fossil fuel production, expansion, or exploration projects highlighted in green. These countries are as follows: Canada, Mexico, Nicaragua, Colombia, Venezuela, Guyana, Suriname, Brazil, Ecuador, Peru, Bolivia, Argentina, Uruguay, South Africa, Mozambique, Tanzania, Kenya, Uganda, Namibia, Angola, Gabon, Republic of the Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Cameroon, Nigeria, Ghana, Côte D'Ivoire, Senegal, Gambia, Mauritania, Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, Libya, Egypt, Chad, Israel, Saudi Arabia, Oman, Yemen, Qatar, Iraq, Iran, Syria, Lebanon, Cyprus, Pakistan, India, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, China, Myanmar, Thailand, Cambodia, Vietnam, Malaysia, Indonesia, Papua New Guinea, Australia, New Zealand, Philippines, Japan, Russia, Mongolia, Ukraine, Poland, Norway, Netherlands, Spain, Italy, Greece, Germany, United Kingdom, Poland, Austria, Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria, Denmark, and Ireland. As shown by the map, it is clear the investment activities of the Worcestershire Pension Fund are truly global.

This data was collected by UK Divest through the sending of Freedom of Information (FOI) requests to all UK LGPS pools and schemes.