Agenda item

The Chair will consider the admission of any late items of Urgent Business.  (Late items of Urgent Business will be considered under the agenda item where they appear. New items of Urgent Business will be dealt with under item X below).

Deputation

A deputation had been received from Tottenham and Wood Green Friends of the Earth which sought the Pensions Committee and Board (PCB) to make a commitment to divest from fossil fuels.

The deputation thanked the PCB for the opportunity to speak. The deputation appreciated that the PCB’s duty was to its members but argued one of its top considerations must be to do all it could to help preserve the world for future generations.

In addition, the deputation raised the following:

• Divestment was an effective means to combat climate change.
• Welcomed the PCB’s investment in the low carbon index and renewables.
• Hoped the PCB would commit to a date by which it would move the remaining shareholdings into low carbon funds and upping the renewables investment.
• Noted the increasing number of natural disasters, such as the 2018 California wildfires, and attributed this to climate change.
• There was to be a series of climate change protests held around the world on 15^th March 2019. Schoolchildren would be attending the Full Council meeting on 18^th March to highlight their concern for the future if climate change was not addressed.
• A report by the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change had stated there was only a 12 year period to act to reduce the risk of an increased number of natural disasters.
• If the PCB were to commit to divestment, then this would help prevent global catastrophes and encourage other Local Authority pension funds to divest.  

The Chair thanked Tottenham and Wood Green Friends of the Earth for their deputation.

Petition

In response to the petition received from Tottenham and Wood Green Friends of the Earth at its 21^st January 2019, the Chair read out the formal response of the PCB, which was as follows:

“We share the concerns of Friends of the Earth regarding the damaging effects of fossil fuels on the environment, and thank them for their engagement with the Fund. Haringey has previously sought to seek to reduce fossil fuel exposure via using low carbon options for equity investments, where this is possible and where this is consistent with our overriding fiduciary duty. The Fund will look to explore whether additional low carbon investments are feasible over the next 12 months, to reduce our exposure to fossil fuels further.

The fund’s use of low carbon funds is not the only strand to the fund’s ESG (environmental social and corporate governance) policy however. We have committed to invest c. £70m in renewable energy infrastructure, which the fund believes will deliver the required returns for the fund, but will also make a meaningful and impactful contribution to positive environmental practices. The level of the fund’s investments in renewable energy also remain under regular review. The fund takes its stewardship duties extremely seriously, and is a tier 1 signatory to the Financial Reporting Council UK Stewardship Code.

The fund firmly believes that engagement with companies who display undesirable characteristics or behaviours is the best way to effect change, and is therefore a member of the Local Authority Pension Fund Forum, (LAPFF), who carry out engagement activities on behalf of local government pension funds.  The LAPFF is one of the largest collaborative engagement groups, with 79 member funds, who hold around £230bn in funds under management.  They engage regularly with a variety of companies, including work to encourage companies to align their business models with a 2°C scenario and for an orderly transition to a low-carbon economy.  The LAPFF believes in engagement activities as opposed to divestment, as divestment could lead to investors having.”