Divest Hackney demands council show ‘true leadership’ by shifting cash from fossil fuels

Fired up: campaign group Divest Hackney at a debate. Photograph: Divest Hackney

Campaigners from Divest Hackney, which wants the council to end its investment in the fossil fuel industry, are turning up the heat ahead of a key meeting this month.

The group is hopeful that a new divestment strategy will be discussed at the meeting on 19 September. The council’s pension fund currently has assets worth £1.1billion.

This includes money in tobacco stocks, as well as investments in companies that extract oil, coal and gas and search for new reserves of these energy sources, which cause global warming.

A petition states: “It is illogical to allow pension funds to endanger those whose futures they seek to protect.”

Chris Venables from Divest Hackney said the council has already approved investment of £25 million in a low carbon property fund to be financed by divestment from the pension fund’s existing “property mandate”.

He called on the council to show “true leadership” by shifting all the money it has in fossil fuels and producing an ethical investment strategy.