Good News: Kent Pension Fund administered by KCC holds less than 1% of investments in fossil fuel companies

Kent Pension Fund administered by Kent County Council, has over 140,000 members . The Pension Fund has taken giant strides in divesting from fossil fuel companies; which contribute to climate change, since we began writing about the fund in 2017. It now has just 0.11% of its funds invested into fossil fuel companies compared to 2.4% in 2017.

The Fund report @31 March 2021, states at page 17

“recognises it is consistent with its fiduciary duty to manage environmental issues including climate change that may be financially material and expects those responsible for managing its investments to comply with the Fund’s policy

The fund does not believe it should divest from companies involved in fossil fuels as that action of itself will not reduce the impact on the climate.”

Divestment is a practical, legal and responsible way for pension funds to respond to climate change by making an example of the climate change’s worst offenders: fossil fuels companies.

It is good to see that pension fund investments in 2021/22 invested into renewables and grew from £7.4bn in 2020/21, to £7.7bn in 2021/22.

For the third year in a row the Kent Pension Fund have divested pension assets from BAE Systems and Lockheed Martin. So, people who invest into this fund no longer indirectly contribute towards the making of weapons used across the world to maim and kill. According to the 2021/22 investments, they do hold shares in Amazon & Alphabet Inc.

The investments into Amazon rose from  £5.4m (20/21) to £10.4m, in 21/22. Also investments rose in Alphabet Inc (which is the  the parent company of Google) from £7.8m (20/21) to £11.4m, at the end of the financial year 21/22, which was March 31st 2022.

As of March 31 2022, the fund held £809,630 of investments in Abu Dhabi Crude Oil. It has investments of £801,465 into Cheniere Engergy which works with liquefied natural gas. The fund has £2.1 invested in Petroleos Mexicanos, which is the Mexican state-owned petroleum company managed and operated by the Mexican government. A further £811,383 in Petronas Capital Ltd which operates as an oil and gas company. £2m in Qatar Energy. £2.2 in Tengizchevroil which is a joint venture between Chevron (50% share in the consortium),  ExxonMobil (25% share), KazMunayGas (20% share) and LukArco (5% share). So all together the pension fund investments in fossil fuel companies is, £8,722,478. Put another way, this is equivalent to 0.11% of the the £7.7bn worth of funds invested.

We note the Kent Pension Fund continues to invest in companies registered in known offshore tax jurisdictions such as Bermuda, Cayman Islands, Luxembourg and Jersey for example.

During 2020/21 the Kent Pension Fund received a total of £18.421m from the Woodford Fund on top of the  £138.9m it received on 30 January 2020, meaning that there is just £80.7 million to collect. However, the fund did not manage to recoup any of the £80.7m owed to it by the Woodford Fund by the 31 March 2022.

The fund paid out £5,855,489 to its investment fund managers and consultants in 2021/22

During 2021/22 the pension paid close to £218m to those who had retired, as can be seen in the chart above.

The Kent Pension Fund administered by KCC has come a long way since since we first started reporting about it in 2017. It’s not a miracle. Much of this has happened because former Green KCC Cllr Martin Whybrow, (pictured) and others, pushed for divestment from fossil fuel companies. Since Mr Whybrow left KCC, the pension fund has divested still further; which is good news for the climate, not just in Kent, or the UK, but for the planet. If more followed suit, perhaps, just perhaps, we could slow climate change from slowly cooking us to death due to record temperatures reported all around the planet in 2022.

Kent Pension Fund Investments @ March 31 2022

Kent Pension Fund Investments @ March 31 2021

Kent Pension Fund Investments-@ 31 March 2020

Kent Pension-Fund-Investments @ 31-March-2019

Kent-Pension-Fund-Investments-@ September 30-2018

Kent-Pension-Fund-Investments-@ Feb-28-2017

The Shepway Vox Team

The Velvet Voices of Dissent

Main Photograph: Sasko Lazarov/Photocall Ireland/Trócaire/350.org